Shining on the sea
by Abbey245
Summary: Set during the viking age. Sookie is the daughter of old norse gods and she is sent to a viking village to fulfill a prophecy. A human Eric finds her and sparks fly. They are destined for each other, but their time is limited. Will they overcome the obstacles thrown at them and make it work? AU, OOC
1. Chapter 1

The Viking story

**AN: My new story is here. Sookie is the daugther of a norse goddess and is sent to erarth. Eric is a viking and not a vampire. Yet. They are meant to be together and when they are ready for it, rule the supe world. I´m 99% sure that this story will have a sequel. But right now, I´ll let you read the story. Enjoy.**

**Almost all of the characters belong to Charlaine Harris. Some others are mine.**

I was standing on the cliff between the worlds again with my mother. I was being sent to the human world. A prophecy had been told, when I was a child that would meet my soulmate in the human world and we would rule all the races there. I thought that it was bizarre. I hadn't even grown to my powers yet. I could do the simple stuff like teleporting, turning invisible and basic self defence but I was too young to be a full goddess yet. It could happen any minute though and I didn't want to be vulnerable when it did happen. It is the most dangerous time for us and anyone could kill us while the change. I was glad that I could take Havet with me though. She was my guardian, she could transform into anything and we could communicate telepathically. Right now, she was in my lap as a cat.  
>„Sookie," Freyja called to me „You must go now. If you wait for too long, you might miss your chance." She smiled at me and I hugged her. I was going to miss her.<br>I turned to the cliff and jumped into the water.

...

I woke up to see a pair of beautiful blue eyes looking down at me with concern. It was the most handsome man, I had ever seen and that was saying something. I had lived with the gods for all of my life.  
>„Are you allright?" he asked me. I was a little sore from being thrown around between the worlds but that would heal soon. I felt a little weak though. „I am fine." I told him stubbornly. The man shook his blonde head and picked me up in his arms.<br>„I'm taking you to my home. You need a place to stay, I have free space and food." I looked around for Havet. When I saw the huge white wolf following us I felt relief. I trusted her with all of my life, we had been together since birth. She would protect me If something happened.  
>The man walked into a nice village. Everyone was busy with their morning routine but a few people gave us suprised glances. They didn't approach us though and I wondered why. The man chuckled and I looked at him „What's so funny?" I asked him. He glanced at Havet. Oh.<br>„Your wolf is scaring all the villagers." Havet had bared her teeth and growled at anyone who dared to look at us _„Calm down. They wouldn't hurt us." _She grinned at me _„Hey let me have my fun. I can't look too tamed, or they might not fear me enough."  
>„Yeah, because your largeness would not scare them it!" <em> She rolled her eyes and closed her mouth. Much better. We had gotten to the man's longhouse. It was large for the standards, so he must have a big family living there with him.  
>The man entered a room, that must have been his. He lay me down on the bed and sat beside me.<br>„What is your name" he asked me.  
>„My name is Sookie." He nodded „I'm Eric. Does the wolf have a name?" I smiled at him.<br>„Her name is Havet. Thank you for picking me up on the shore. It was very nice of you." He took my hand „It was my pleasure. Are you feeling allright? We should probably introduce you to the village soon if you are planning on staying here. You are staying here, right?" suddenly, he was looking worried. I nodded. „Good. You can live here and work for me if you want to." I had nowhere to go anyways. „I would love to." Not really „is there somewhere I can wash myself before meeeting the village. I feel dirty." I had sand everywhere.  
>„So you are feeling good enough? Ther is a clear stream that we use for washing nearby. I will take you there." He started to pick me up again but I jumped out of thebed before he could catch me. I wasn't going to let him carry me everywhere. He rolled his eyes and took my hand instead. <em>„Havet, you can stay here." <em> She rolled her eyes but did what I said.  
>Eric led me through the woods to a beautiful stream. „So here is the place for washing yourself." He said, looking at me expectantly. Oh, he was waiting for me to undress myself. I would've done it if he hadn't had that victorious expression on his face. Somebody would have to bring him down and I would be glad to be that somebody. I ran towards the water and jumped in with my clothes on.<br>The water was cool and refreshing. I swam aroud for a bit before I took a glance at Eric. I looked at where he stood before but he wasn't there. I looked around but still didn't find him. Maybe he had somewhere to go. Just when I thought that, I felt something grab me from behind. The thing lifted me up and threw me back into the water. It was Eric, who was laughing his ass off at my expression.  
>I launched myself towards him and knocked him over. I quickly ran out of the water and settled on a rock, watching as Eric struggled to stand up. He smirked at me, when he got out of the water. He was so muscular. I ogled him until he was standing in front of me "See something you like?" he brushed my cheek. I nodded to him silently. "Me too." He was suddenly very serious.<br>I stood up, shaking myself from the haze of his awesome body. " We should go. I was supposed to meet the villagers, remember?" he nodded.  
>"I'm going to introduce you to my brothers and their wives. Aude and Helga are very kind and they can help you get used to the village." Good, I had no idea what I was expected of me, as a girl that Eric had found on the beach. I knew how to work though, so I wasn't completely clueless.<br>We neared a few men, working on a longship. Two of them had Eric's features so I figured that they must be his brothers. They were impressive, but not as impressive as Eric. We moved closer to them and they looked up at us "Brother, I see that you've finally found yourself a girl. What is your name little one?" Eric groaned.  
>"Nice to meet you too. My name is Sookie." Eric smiled at me "That's Alexander," He pointed at the man who had spoken to me "and that's Leif." He pointed at the other brother. I nodded to them both.<br>"Where did you find the little flower? I haven't seen her around." Leif asked Eric. I'm not that little.  
>"I went on the shore this morning, a little bit after sunrise and I saw her lying there, just on the shoreline. I took her home and here we are." The brothers nodded.<br>"I should find Aude and Helga. I have some work to do and I don't want to leave Sookie alone right now." Alexander and Leif smirked at us "They are near the old oak tree. By the way, some people were talking about a wolf following you in the morning. Is that true?" they asked curiously. I chuckled  
>"She's with me. She won't attack anyone, if they don't attack me." I laughed at their solemn expressions and Eric led me away from them. "I think you just earned their respect." Eric winked at me and I laughed. I was going to like it here.<p>

**AN: So what do you think? I really hope you like it. Please review. If you review, I´ll write faster. I haven´t found a beta for this story yet, so all mistakes are mine. I have a lot of trouble with paragraphs and stuff like that and I know it. I just can´t fix it. You´ll have to bear with me until I find a beta. You can check out my other story "My awakening" if you want to.**

**Havet-sea (In Swedish, as much as Google translate tells me. I hope itś right)**

**Freyja- Old Norse goddess of love and beauty and other good stuff like that. Like a Norse version of Aphrodithe.**

**Please review and\or PM. I love and\or consider every suggestion that you make. Thank you for reading! BIG hugs to you all!**


	2. Chapter 2

Shining on the sea Chapter 2

**AN: The new chapter is here! I am suprised by the number of reviews on the first chapters, Big thanks and hugs to everyone who read&reviewed the story. I'm so glad that you guys like the story! I'm pretty new to fanfic and I don't know if I should reply to all reviews/alerts/favorites. I hope that I haven't insulted anyone who expected a response to a superawesome review. If you want me to reply to your reviews, just tell me. I hope you like the chapter. Enjoy!  
>Charlaine Harris owns Eric and Sookie. All the others are mine.<strong>

EPOV

I woke before the sunset again. I hadn't had a good sleep for days now. I felt a need to go to the shore. I got dressed and almost ran there. I sat down on the sand, waiting for the sun to rise, feeling a strange anticipation, as if something important would happen as soon as the sky lit up.

As a child, I had always liked to sneak out of bed, to watch the sun rise on the beach. It was so beautiful and peaceful to be here. Just me, the sun and the waves. As I grew, I had been too busy to rise before the sun and had forgotten, jut how good it ffelt to be here.

A small stripe of light appeared on the horizon an I felt a light feeling fill me. As the sun rised, a strange ball of light appeared on the edge of the water. It spred until the whole water was shining. The glow grew stronger and stronger until something inside it released and the light exploded. I was blinded for a moment, but when I opened my eyes, everything was back to normal.

I looked around, searching for some proof that I wasn't mad. My eyes fell on the place, where the shine had begun. There was something white and glowing there. I carefully moved closer, to see the most beautiful woman and a snow white wolf lying there. They looked magical, they obviously were, because they traveled here in an explosion of light. The girl was so beautiful that she looked like a goddess.

As I was looking at them, the wolf opened it's eyes. Then I realized, that It was no wolf. Those eyes were too wise for an animal, even for some humans. The beast stood protectively in front of the girl and growled at me."I mean you no harm." I said to the wolf. It blinked it's eyes, understanding me and letting me approach the girl.

It was like light and everything good had been compressed into a small human body and the package was sent here. The wolf eyed me suspiciously, when I leaned closer to the goddess to see that she was alive. She definetly had a heartbeat and she was breathing. She started shuffling a bit, and opened her eyes. She head the most beautiful blue eyes. They shone like stars.  
>"Are you allright?" I asked her. She inspected me for a moment and then answered defiantly<br>"I am fine." She did look fine, but I wanted to be closer to her so I shook my head and picked her up in my arms. I wanted to keep her with myself forever. She was mine.  
>"I'm taking you to my home. You need a place to stay, I have free space and food." She nodded quietly and started looking around. She was tense for a moment, but relaxed, when she saw the white beast. The wolf was huge, it was more than half of my size and I was a big man. Even for a viking.<p>

I carried her to the village, where everyone had just woken. Only few people glanced at us, but turned away in fear. I looked around to see the cause of that. They wouldn't surely be afraid of the girl in my arms. When I saw what the wolf was doing, I chuckled. The beast growled at anyone who dared to look at us. The villagers would not approach us because of the wolf, it was for the best. I didn't want to share the company of my newfound goddess just yet.

"What's so funny?" the girl asked. I glanced at the wolf, who was growling at a few women walking past us, terrifying them. She looked at the wolf too. Afraid that she didn't realize what was funny I explained "Your wolf is scaring the villagers" She gave me a small nod and stared at the wolf intently. They seemed to have a discussion and finally the wolf rolled it's eyes and closed it's mouth.

By that time, we had arrived to my longhouse. I lived there alone. Since I was the oldest son, I had inherited the house after my parents died. I had told my brothers that they could live there with me, but when they got married they built their own houses. It killed me, living alone in such a large house but I had made a promise to myself, to find a wife and fill the house with kids as soon as I could.

I carried the girl to my bedroom and laid her down on the bed. I sat beside her  
>"What's your name?" I asked her.<br>"My name is Sookie." She answered. What a strange name. I nodded "I'm Eric. Does the wolf have a name?" I couldn't just call it 'beast' all the time.

She smiled the most beautiful smile at me. Now it was officcially my life's purpose to make her smile.  
>"Her name is Havet. Thank you for picking me up on the shore. It was very nice of you." I couldn't help, but take her hand in mine "It was my pleasure." I assured her "Are you feeling allright? We should probably introduce you to the village soon if you are planning on staying here. You are staying here, right?" She could not leave. She was mine.<br>I mean, she will be mine, soon. Luckily, she nodded. "Good. You can live here and work for me if you want to." Please say yes.

"I would love to. Is there somewhere I can wash myself before meeting the village. I feel dirty." So did I. "So you feel good enough? There is a clear stream that we use for washing nearby. I will take you there."

I wanted to take her into my arms again, but she lept out of the bed. Damn. I rolled my eyes and took her hand. We walked to the stream.

"So here is the place for washing yourself." I waited for her to get naked but she suprised me, by jumping into the water with her clothes on. Fuck. I jumped in after her but she didn't notice me, because she was swimming around.

I went underwater and grabbed her from behind. I lifted her up and threw her into the water. I couldn't help, but laugh like a crazy person, when I saw her angry face. She looked like a drowned cat.

Before I could do anything, she jumped at me, knocking me over. Damn, that girl was strong. I got up and saw her sitting on a rock, laughing at laughs at me like that. I got out of hte water with a smirk on my face. I knew what effect my muscles had on women. I watched her mouth drop and her eyes glaze over as I approached her. Yes, at least I knew that she liked me as much as I liked her. I couldn't help, but feel cocky, just a little.

"See anything you like?" I asked her jokingly. She was so beautifu that I couldn't help, but touch her to see if she was real. I brushed her cheek and she nodded, still speechless. I had to tell her that I felt the same  
>"Me too." I could only say. She seemed to awaken from her trance. She stood up and said "We should go. I was supposed to meet the villagers, remember?" I nodded, but didn't mean it. I didn't want to share her yet. She was mine. I couldn't hide her though.<br>"I'm going to introduce you to my brothers and their wives. Aude and Helga are very kind and they can help you get used to the village." I wanted to help her get used to the village, but I had my duties and I couldn't just drag Sookie around with me. She would be just fine with Helga and Aude. They would help her around her duties as well. I really hoped that she could sew and handle the food.

Since I didn't have a wife, I needed someone to do a wife's work for me. I wouldn't force her to share her body with me though, she was not a slave. I hoped that she could handle it, if she couldn't, I'd find her something else to do though. I really wanted to keep her around.

I figured that my brothers would be working on the longship. That was nearest, so I led her there. My brothers noticed us as soon as we approached. Alexander smirked at me  
>"Brother, I see that you've finally found yourself a girl. What is your name, little one?" I hoped that they wouldn't scare Sookie away. They could be really weird if they wanted to.<br>"Nice to meet you too. My name is Sookie." she was polite, but stood her ground. I smiled at her approvingly and introduced my brothers. She nodded at them and didn't say anything else.  
>"Where did you find the little flower? I haven't seen her around." Leif said.<br>I explained the situation to them vaguely  
>"I went on the shore this morning, a little bit after sunrise and I saw her lying there, just on the shoreline. I took her home and here we are." They nodded. There was a big storm last night, I guess they thought that Sookie had been on a drowning ship. I knew what had really happened and I was going to find out what it meant sooner or later.<p>

"I should find Aude and Helga. I have some work to do and I don't want to leave Sookie alone right now." Someone might steal her from me. Leif and Alexander smirked at us  
>"They are near the old oak tree. By the way, some people were talking about a wolf following you in the morning. Is that true?" The rumor of the white beast must have spread fast. I heard Sookie chuckle "She's with me. She won't attack anyone, if they don't attack me." So the wolf was her protector.<p>

I led Sookie away from my brothers and winked at her "I think you just earned their respect." We walked away, laughing.

...

SPOV

We arrived to a beutiful, flowery field with an old oak tree in the middle. Under the oak, two women were sitting and doing handwork. The looked at us and waved.  
>"Helga, Aude. This is Sookie, she was caught in the storm and the tide brought her on the beach. I have some work to do, could you give her some company?" They smiled<br>"We'd love to." Aude grabbed my hand andd pulled me to sit with them. Eric smiled

"Well, I have to go. I hope you'll get along good, Bye." He waved at us as he walked away. Helga gave me a needle and a cloth "You know how to sew, right?" I nodded "I was making a shirt for Eric. I suppose that since you work for him now that you could do it. I have to make one for Alexander too." She smiled at me.

We made small talk while working and I found out a lot of useful things abut the village people. Aude was very cheery and energetic. Helga was calm and observative. They were both very nice and seemed to like me.I sure liked them.

I was having fun and in no time, the sun was low in the sky. I had just finished Eric's shirt and Helga thought that we should go back to the village. We got up and started walking towards the houses.

As we arrived to the houses, Eric ran towards us "Hey! How was your day?" I chucled, as Aude began blabbering about what we had done. Honestly, we hadn't done much but Aude still found something to be excited about.

Eric took my hand as she finished "Well, I'm glad that you had fun together, but I have to steal Sookie from you now." Aude and Helga waved, as Eric dragged me away. 

He took me to his house and sat me in a chair. Havet ran up to me and put her head on my lap  
><em>"Why the fuck did you leave me here all day? It was the most boring time of my life." <em> I chuckled  
><em>"Like I needed you to scare everyone who walked within ten feet of us. It was for the best, you need to learn patience." <em> She rolled her eyes so hard, that I could swear that her eyeballs had an outer space experience.

Eric raised an eyebrow at us. "What are you?" he asked me. Fuck.

**AN: Sorry for the cliffhanger. It's going to end well though, so don't worry. I guess the 'mine' attitude isn't a vamp thing for Eric. I need a beta reader, so if you are interested, PM me. I would really appreciate it. Please review and I might deliver the next chapter faster.  
>Thank you for reading! A.<strong>


	3. Chapter 3

Shining on the sea Chapter 3

**AN: The new chapter is here! Big hugs and thanks to every reviewer. You all inspire me so much. I am still looking for a beta reader, so PM me if you are interested. You can also check out my twitter account Abbey245. I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

_Previously: Eric raised an eyebrow at us. "What are you?" he asked me. Fuck._

SPOV

"What do you mean?" Eric looked at me, like I was stupid. Obviously I wasn't.  
>"Well, you aren't human. When I found you on the shore, you had appeared in an explosion of light. That wolf is far too intelligent to be an animal. What are you?"<p>

He made a good point. How was I going to make sure that he wouldn't burn me if I told him? What if he didn't believe me? I wasn't going to lie to him. Suddenly, I heard Havet's voice inside my head

_"Trust him. He is yours and you are his. You need him"_ What the hell was she talking about? _ "Remember why we came here. It's him. He is the one you had to find, I'm pretty sure." _ Maybe she was right. He was the one who found me on the beach after all.  
>"My mother is called Freyja. The goddess of love, beauty and lust. My father is the one they call Odin. The god of death."<p>

Eric kneeled before me. This was going to get awkward.  
>"So you are a goddess." I shook my head. "I'm too young for that. When we reach full age, we transform into our higher selves. Havet is my protector. She can turn into any creature that exists in the world."<p>

Eric looked speechless. "Please don't kneel before me. You are as powerful as me right now. And don't tell anyone that I'm anything more than human. It might cause a lot of trouble."  
>He stood up and nodded "I understand. You can trust me." I smiled<br>"You don't have to be weird with me. In here, I'm just a girl that you found on the beach. I'm nothing more than a peasant." He shook his head.  
>"No you're not. Is there anything else that I should know?" I thought about the prophecy, He should know about it.<br>"There was a prophecy told when I was born, that I would find a man in the human realm and that when we are ready, we would rule over all the races." He looked thoughtful.  
>"So, since you came here and I found you, I might be the other side of the prophecy? " I shrugged<p>

"All the signs point to it." He nodded "Let's see where it goes. Right now, we should sleep a bit." I smiled. It had been a long day.

Eric started to remove his shirt and I stopped him, by grabbing the hem of his shirt, holding it down

"You don't sleep naked, do you?" He smirked at me "I usually do, but since I have a lady in my bed, I'll keep my pants on. For now." I sighed in relief. While I had no problem with nudity, I was a little worried about sleeping in a bed with a naked viking. I might do something that I'll regret later. Luckily, I had a two layer dress on, so I just removed the top garment, leaving me in a small, white dress. I looked towards Eric, whose mouth was hanging open a little. I might have ogled his perfect chest muscles a bit.

I motioned him to get under the covers and he did so, keeping his eyes on me the whole time. He patted the bed at his side and I laid down beside him. I curled up into a ball and he put his arms around me, I let sleep take me.

...

_I was in a clearing, by the old oak. I heard my mother call my name "Sookie! Sookie!" I wanted to call back to her, but I couldn't find my voice. Suddenly, she appeared in front of me and grabbed my hand "Sookie, my child you must be careful in the human world now. Not everyone is good there. The change is arriving to you and when that happens, the danger will appear. Don't trust the outlanders. They do not bring good with them. Trust your wolf, your Eric and the white bearded man. They will help you, but most of all trust yourself and your powers. You will be more powerful than all of us, but it brings you great danger. I will help you when I can, but I will be kept from will find me here, if you need me. Keep your eyes open for the three traitors..." And everything went black._

I opened my eyes and felt a warm body leaning against my back. I saw Havet sleeping on the floor beside me, so it couldn't be her.  
>When I remembered last night, my heart started fluttering in my chest.<p>

Eric and his naked chest were behind me, I wanted to touch him so bad, but I didn't want to wake him so I just laid still.

_"Hey you! Did you have the same weird prophecy dream as I did?" _Havet screamed inside my head  
><em>"I did have prophecy dream, but the question is, were our dreams the same?" <em>I played my dream inside her head  
><em>"Mine was a little different, but almost the same. Nothing in mine for you to worry about though. <em>_I'm going back to sleep now" _she said. I let her do what she wanted and thought about the dream a little. '_Three traitors' _at least I knew what to look forward to. '_Trust your Eric'... _so he was mine. Just then, I felt him stir behind me.

"Good morning, lover. How was your sleep?" I chuckled "It was very interesting." He kissed my shoulder and I got out of the bed. I put on my dress

"So, what have you planned for me today?" He shrugged  
>"I don't have anything planned for today, so I'll just spend some time with you. I have yet to bombard you with questions." he smirked at me. He looked around for a shirt and I remembered that I had gotten one ready just yesterday. I handed him his new shirt and he nodded appreciatively "Nice work. Did you make it?" I nodded<p>

"Thank you" he said and I shrugged. It was my duty after all. He put it on and I instantly regretted making the shirt. He shouldn't cover up, he was too beautiful for it. I resisted the urge to rip the disturbing piece of garment from his flawless body by settling on drooling about his bare arms. Yup, I totally enjoyed the armporn.

I was going to take Havet with us today, so I woke her up _"Do you want to come outside, or do you want to sleep here all day" _I asked her, while shaking her body a little. _"Are you kidding me? I couldn't spend another minute in this dark room." _She shook her head and got up.

Eric grabbed my hand hand pulled me out of the door, Havet hot on my heels. We walked through the busy village, some people waving to Eric cheerfully. Soon we reached the edge of the woods.

Eric led us throug the trees and to a small pond, white with water lilies and surrounded by trees. It was enchanting. We sat down and Havet jumped into the water. Eric turned to me

"So, what's it like?" he asked me.  
>"What's what like?" I asked in return. He shook his head<br>"You know, being a goddess." I shrugged "I'm not a goddess yet. I'm pretty happy with my life so far, though. So what's it like, being human. I've always wondered how you humans endure it. Doesn't it get boring?"

"No. In all my life, I've never been bored. There's always something to do. Do you have any powers already?" I laughed  
>"Actually, I do. I can manifest things, turn invisible and control the elements. I can also apparate. More powers come with time. I've changed my form a few times, but I haven't figured out how I did it yet."<p>

Eric's eyes were bulging out of his skull "Can you show me?" Showtime.

I made a small ball of water appear from the pond. It moved toward Eric, stopping in front of him. I moved it just above his head and when he looked up, I dropped it in his face.

I laughed, like a crazy person when I saw the look on his soaked face. He got up, probably to throw me into the water, but by the time he got to me, I had already appeared on the other side of the water.

He started running towards me, he was fast, but I was faster. I disappeared and sneaked up behind his back. I jumped on him and covered his chuckled, while I moved in front of him. I grabbed im around his waist and flew us up. When we were above the lake, I dropped him. I flew in, behind him and when he appeared from under the water, I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him.

Damn, the man could kiss. It was like my whole world started revolving around him from that moment. We were like two missing puzzle pieces, finally united.

_"Get a room." _I heard Havet groaning inside my head. Well, Eric needed to breathe anyways, I could go on for another ten minutes, I didn't need to breathe that much. I recultantly pulled away from him and he gave me the most radiant smile. I smirked at him "That was amazing, you are amazing." He hugged me "So are you. Now let's go have breakfast." he said. _"Finally! I'm starving here!" _Havet complained. I laughed at her and we walked to the village.

**AN: So did you like it? It is a little short and I´m sorry for it, but it didn´t feel right to keep you waiting too long, because of the little cliffie at the end of last chapter. To answer some review questions: Vamplover669- Eric and Sookie are both twenty years old. Kira Kiralina-Aude and Helga did not ask where Sookie is from because they thought that it might be a sore subject. They wanted to keep the conversation as casual as possible. Eric forgot to ask. I still don´t know if I should reply to reviews. Don´t be shy about leaving them though. Til the next chapter. A.**


	4. Chapter 4

Shining on the sea Chapter 4

**AN: So the new chapter is finally up! I am sorry it has been long since I last updated, but I have been very sick lately. And you would think that since I have been home for a week that I would write like crazy, but instead I just got a huge writer`s block. I really hope you like this chapter, I worked hard on it. Enjoy!**

**Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris. The other characters are mine.**

I woke up, holding Sookie in my arms. She seemed to be dreaming very vividly, seeing as her body was twitching a little and her eyes were moving under her lashes.

I wondered what she might be dreaming about, when she jumped out of the bed. Her eyes were still closed and she looked like she was still asleep.  
>"Sookie?" I asked carefully, not wanting to scare her. Suddenly, she opened her eyes. They were glazed over and glowing, the blue in her eyes seemed almost transparent. She reached her hand out to me<br>"Come, Eric." I swiftly raised from the bed and took her hand. She led me out of the house, never even looking back at me. I noticed that her feet did not touch the ground, they were walking just above it, almost fluidly. She led me through the woods, Havet follwing us quietly. We walked to the clearing in the forest, where the old oak stood. The tree looked white in the moonlight and a woman was standing beneath it.

We approached the stranger slowly and I felt Sookie's hand shake in mine. I glanced her way and saw that she had regained her conciousness, her feet were slowly nearing the ground with every step we took towards the tall woman. I couldn't help, but gasp when the woman turned around. It was Sookie. She was much taller and tanned, there was also a deep wisdom in her eyes. But other than that, they looked the same. The tall Sookie nodded to us and smiled brightly  
>"You must be very confused Don't worry, I'm here to help." I felt little Sookie pull her hand from my grasp, I tried to hold onto her, but she was stronger than me.<br>"Who are you?" my Sookie asked.  
>"Can't you tell? I'm you obviously." the taller one answered.<br>"But you're different." my Sookie blurted out. That made the tall woman laugh.  
>"People change, little one. I'm over a thousand years old." Wait, what? I guess she was a goddess then.<br>"So, how did you get here?" I asked the woman. She shrugged.  
>"I have no idea. I just closed my eyes for a second and opened them to find myself in the past. It's quite pleasant, seeing the old village though. In the future, this big tree is long gone, not to mention the houses." Her face was filled with sadness for a very brief moment before the spark of amusement returned to them.<br>"I'm actually here to deliver a message. Stop wasting your time. When the twelfth moon passes, you will be separated for a thousand years. You should make the most of your time together. Also," she raised her hand and a small golden bottle and a much bigger chalice appeared in it. "You should start drinking that. One chalice every day, no more." she handed Sookie the drink and the cup.  
>"Well, I've got to go back. I'll see you soon, I guess." She waved and disappeared. Sookie turned to me "Are you alright?" I nodded and smiled to her. She grinned at me and raised the bottle "Do you know what this is?"<br>"Is it ale?" It probably wasn't.  
>"No. It's ambrosia, this means that I will be a goddess soon." How can such a small bottle hold such a large meaning?<br>"How soon?" I asked, hoping that it would happen rather later than sooner. When she would grow as tall as the future Sookie too fast, her body would be a little sore. She shrugged "It depends. Let's go back to the house." She grabbed my hand, there was a small POP and we were standing in front of the bed.

Sookie sent me an apologizing look "Sorry, I didn't mean to do that." I chuckled  
>"I don't mind. It's a huge timesaver."<p>

Sookie smiled at me and sat down on the bed. She put the ambrosia cup on the bedside table, took the bottle and poured the chalice full of the liquid. She sniffed the drink carefully and her face filled with ecstacy. I watched, as she sent me a radiant smile and downed the whole drink in one mouthful. When she was done, she sighed blissfully, laid down and fell asleep. I guess it made her tired, so I'd have to make sure that she only took it at night. I removed my shirt and got under the covers with her. I wrapped my body around hers and dozed off.

SPOV

So hot! I felt as if I was burning from the inside out. I couldn't open my eyes, but I saw faint light behind my eyelids. I also heard distant noises, as if someone was talking in another room. I wanted to wake up so bad, but everytime I tried, I fell even deeper to the hot darkness.

I felt something nice and cool wrap around my fingers. Oh, the blessedness! Something just as cool settled on my forehead too. I tried to concentrate on the two beacons for my sanity to remain, but the heat was beginning to pulsate inside my core again, now more ferociously. I wanted to cry, to scream, but I couldn't control my body. When, or if, I would wake from this, I would take a nice swim. I tried to fight the stupor off again, as I remembered the beautiful stream Eric and I had washed ourselves in. Suddenly, the burning dissapeared and my senses were as sharp as ever. I carefully opened my eyes, to see Eric looking down at me, in a second Aude's overly cheerful face popped up behind him too.  
>"Thank gods you woke up Sookie!" I instantly regretted opening my eyes. I sat up on the bed and Eric explained quickly<br>"You had a fever and you have been asleep for the whole day." I saw worry in his eyes and wanted to comfort him somehow. I raised my hand to his cheek  
>"Well, I'm fine now. It must have been something I drank." I gave Eric a maningful look and he seemed to undrstand what I meant.<p>

Aude didn't though, but luckily she didn't push it and just shrugged. "Well, have fun, you two. I'm going to go make dinner and do other things." She waved her hand lightly and stepped out of the door. When we heard the door close, Eric turned to me  
>"Do you think it was the ambrosia drink that gave you a fever?" He asked me, while laying down on the bed beside me. I nodded<br>"It means that it's working."

He looked relieved "So it's not dangerous?" he asked and I shook my head. He smiled brightly at me  
>"Good, because I have no intention of letting you go." I chuckled and kissed him gently, neither did I.<p>

**AN: What do you think? Did you like it or hate it? Don´t hesitate to leave some feedback to me. It is strongly appreciated.  
>If someone would like to beta this story for me then you could send me a PM. Thank you so much for reading, I hope that I would get well soon, so I could write normal chapters to you all. A.<strong>


	5. Chapter 5

Shining on the sea Chapter 5

_**AN: WARNING! LEMONS AHEAD; READ AT YOUR OWN RISK. I've got to tell you that I'm not very good at writing lemons. Since English is not my first language I have to check my dictionary all the time to keep from repeating words. In the end, I'm never happy with my lemons because they turn out a little bit clumsy. For the record, neither Eric or Sookie are virgins. I had no willpower to write about the awkward moment where Eric discovers that his favorite soon-to-be goddess has never had sex. Let's just say that Eric lost his virginity to a concubine, Sookie got drunk on some heavenly orgy and woke up the next morning with a sore hootchie. Another problem solved! Well, I should let you read the story now. Enjoy!**_

_**Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris. The other characters are mine!**_

_Previously: He smiled brightly at me "Good, because I have no intention of letting you go." I chuckled and kissed him gently. Nether did I._

I thought about what the other me had told us: _stop wasting your time, when the twelfth moon passes you will be separated for a thousand years._

We had only one year, we should make the most of it, right? Thousand years seemed like such a long time, so I should make sure that he wouldn't forget me.

_"It would be a good idea to fuck him, like NOW" _I heard Havet's voice in my head. For once, following her advice didn't seem like such a bad idea.  
><em>"Are you sure?"<em> She rolled her eyes at me  
><em>"Of course! He's the man. You aren't going to get any better than that anywhere. Do it and don't be such a prude." <em>I am so not a prude!

I definetly wanted to punch her in the face right now, but being the good person that I am, I held myself back. _"Well, get out of here then." _She gave me a wolfy grin  
><em>"Don't mind if I do. You kids have fun!" <em>She sprinted out of the door and Eric closed it up behind her.

"Well, she was in a hurry to leave, are we in trouble?" I giggled.  
>"Not that I know of. She's jus sick of spending her nights indoors." A little white lie wouldn't hurt anyone.<p>

He shrugged and sat down on the bed. I hesitantly moved towards him. He arched his eyebrow when I got in front of him and straddled his lap. I winked at him and kissed his lips passionately, luckily he responded.

I pushed him, so he was lying on the bed and I could now feel his erection through our clothes. Feeling how big he was, I couldn't help but moan a little which made him even harder. He pulled away from me for a second  
>"If you keep this up, I won't be able to resist the urge to fuck you." I grinded mself down on his erection<p>

"Well, don't resist it then." I whispered to his ear. He growled and rolled us over, so he was on top of me. His mouth made it's way to my neck and started gently sucking and nipping my sensitive skin, I wrappeed my arms around him and pulled him closer to me, but he moved away from me and smirked.

He pulled the skirt of my dress up to my thighs and raised his eyebrow. I nodded fervently and he pushed the hem of my dress to my waist. He smiled at me devilishly  
>"Watch me, lover" and he took a long lick along my slit.<p>

I let out a gasp and he started sucking my clit. He kept our eye contact the whole time and the heated look in his blue eyes made my insides melt. I began to feel my orgasm build inside me, it started increasing speed when Eric plunged one of his long, thick fingers into me.

His finger continued fucking me, while his mouth started making it's way up my body. I removed my dress and his mouth landed on my breasts right away. His warm mouth teased and licked my nipples until I was panting in despair, I was wound as tight as a string and I felt as if I would break any moment now.

Eric must have felt it too, because he started rubbing my nub with his finger. I fell down the edge, when he entered a second finger into me. I let out a strangled scream and Eric kissed my lips again.

I started pulling his shirt and he raised his hands for a second to help me pull it off. His muscles were simply mouthwatering and I couldn't help but run my hands over his chest and stomach. My hands made their way downwards and started fumbling with the knot on his pants. He had pulled it very tight and I just ended up ripping his pants off.

I had released his gracious plenty and in the end, that was most important. I wrapped my hand around his length and started stroking up and down. His eyes rolled back and he sighed, but his hand pulled mine away from him.

"I only want to come inside of you" he said hoarsely.  
>"What the fuck are you waiting for, then?" I said challengingly. He shrugged and continued kissing me, while doing it, he was teasing my enterance with his cock.<p>

I scratched his back with my fingers in frustration, why wouldn't he just do it? He finally started pushing in, but did it slowly.  
>I was actually glad that he drew the moment out as long as he could, this miraculous feeling just had to be savored. His hugeness stretched me so deliciously.<p>

I must admit, at first I had doubted if he'd even fit inside me, but I put aside all of those worries when he was buried inside me to the hilt.  
>He filled me so nicely that I wondered how I hadn't felt empty without him there, I sure as hell would now.<p>

I wrapped my legs around his waist to keep him close to me  
>"My lover," he whispered into my ear "don't close your eyes, I want to see them." I opened my eyes that had closed from the immense pleasure that he was giving me. I looked into his deep, sky-blue eyes, as he was rocking his hips back and forth against mine rhythmically.<p>

Sparks in almost every color started to crackle around us and I felt as if I was being bound to Eric in some way. It was overwhelming, but in a good orgasmic way, literally.  
>We came undone together and I felt a crushing explosion erupt from the both of us. Eric collpsed on top of me and I wrapped my arms around him. I felt very safe and secure under him, he was just so big and warm.<br>"Wow, that was just, wow." he said in a startled tone.  
>"I'd go with amazing, remarkable, marvelous and mind-blowing." I answered to his great postcoital vocabulary. I felt him chuckle and roll off of me<br>"Yes, that's what I meant to say."  
>I turned to lay on my side, so we were facing each other<br>"Did you and Havet plan this all?" He asked me. I chuckled and shook my head  
>"No. She just gave me the last push. I have been wanting to jump you since the moment we met."<p>

He pulled me to him "Well, I dreamt of fucking you even before we met." I raised my eyebrow  
>"What's that supposed to mean? Are you psychic?" I asked him.<p>

"No, I meant that I dreamed of finding someone as gorgeous and perfect as you. You are my life now." He whispered the last sentence and kissed the top of my head. I tilted my head at the last minute and kissed his nose.  
>"And you are mine. When I was sent to earth, I imagined that my man would be some scruffy and angry savage, but instead I got you." he chucled<br>"Yeah you got me: the clean and calm civilized viking" he said sarcastically.

I shook my head "I didn't mean it like that. I meant that I'm happy that I didn't get some scary, stinky drunk for a man. I would've kicked his ass."

I playfully reached behind him and smacked his perfect butt lightly. I jumped out of the bed to avoid Eric's payback and went to the tble, where my ambrosia was.

I poured myself a cupful of the golden liquid and gulped it down. It tasted so wonderful, even better than last night. I felt a delicious exhaustion wrap itself around me like a blanket. I laid back down beside Eric and he spooned behind me.

"Sweet dreams, lover." he murmured. "Good night." I whispered back.

I just hoped that tonight, anything freaky wouldn't happen.

_**AN: You like? Leave some feedback to let me know. Big thanks and hugs to everyone who has reviewed/alerted/favorited my stories. It means a lot to me that you like my stories enough to do these things. Also if you have any suggestions for the story (example: should we let Sookie and Eric get a good night's sleep after their small sex-fest or should we send them some trouble) Don't hesitate to leave a review/PM.  
>All questions will be cryptically answered, so don't be shy to ask. I don't bite... much.<br>I don't have a beta-reader for this story, so if you want to beta me, send a PM.  
>Thank you for reading<br>A.**_


	6. Chapter 6

Shining on the sea Chapter 6

_**AN: The new chapter is here! I'll give you one more chapter of some lemony goodness, before we return to the real world. Big hugs to everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted this story. I like it that you like it :) I hope you like the chapter.**_

_**Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris. All the other characters are mine.**_

I woke up in the morning, feeling Eric stroke my hair. My head was on his warm chest and I felt him chuckle, as I turned my head and kissed his shoulder.

"Good morning, my beautiful lover." He purred to me.  
>I smiled at him "Good morning to you too, my handsome viking." To that, he chuckled, wrapped his arms around me and lifted my body on top of his.<p>

"So, what have you planned for us today?" I asked him teasingly, already guessing what his plot would be. He shrugged "Let's just stay in bed the whole day. We can return to the real world tomorrow. But first, we have to eat."

He started to get out of the bed, but I grabbed his hand to hold him still.  
>"You don't have to leave the bed to get food. Look." I manifested a piece of bread and gave it to Eric, who was staring at me dazedly<p>

"Eat it, It will give you energy." He carefully took a bite and chewed it slowly. After swallowing, he started eating it ravenously. When he had consumed almost all of the bread, he offered the small peace that was left to me  
>"Are you hungry?"<p>

I shook my head "Actually, I don't have to eat at all. I only do it because I like the taste of food." He shrugged and put the whole piece into his mouth at once.  
>"Well, you don't know what you're missing. This is the most amazing bread I've ever tasted. Thank you." he told me with his mouth full.<p>

I giggled at his goofyness "Oh, I know. I've had it before." He shrugged and swallowed his food. "Come here now" He opened his arms to welcome me and I gladly straddled his lap. When I felt his cock harden beneath me, I slowly slid onto it too.

I still couldn't get over how good he felt inside me, he belonged there. He groaned and sunk his head back onto the bed, clearly enjoying me riding him. I slowly rocked my hips back and forth and put my hands on his muscular chest for support.

He grabbed my hips tightly and started guiding them, I figured that since he was actually doing all the work, I might as well bow down to his nipples and take a bite. It wouldn't do any harm, so I did it.

I felt him shudder "I'm gonna cum..." he whispered shakily. His hands fell from my hips and I sped up my movements. He released inside me, dragging me along with his orgasm. I dug my fingernails inside his chest, as I rode through the huge wave crashing down upon us.

When we were done, I collapsed on top of him. As we regained our composure, I noticed that his chest was bleeding from the places my fingernails had damaged it. They were pretty deep wounds, so they could get infected unless I healed them.

My instincts took over and I started licking the cuts, to get my healing saliva in there. He started squirming under me, so I looked up to see what was wrong with him

"What are you doing?" he asked me confusedly.  
>"I'm healing your wounds." he still looked confused "My saliva heals your wounds." I explained to him and finished licking up the other side of his chest.<p>

He struggled to look at his chest and his eyes opened wide, as he saw the cuts reduce and disappear entirely

"How is this possible?" He asked, turning to me. As I saw the confusion on his face, I instantly felt ashamed of myself. He must be very overwhelmed and I hadn't even properly explained him everything there was to know.

In only three days, he had acquired himself a goddess, who was supposed to be his future woman. He hadn't even blinked an eye through all of this madness that had been going on with me around. This was yet, another sign of how strong he was, not only physically, but mentally also. The least I could do, was giving him some explanation.

"Since I have been drinking the ambrosia, my body has been gaining magic rapidly. As you see, all the other gods and goddesses are tall, including the future me, that is because a small body might get overwhelmed from the amounts of magic it has to withhold and that would cause some problems. I am still a little undersized, so the magic in me has to find some way out to avoid me exploding. That's why some strange things might be happening with my body. As for me healing you, that's quite a normal thing to do. I should've warned you before starting to lick the wounds, but I'm just not used to interacting with humans and I'm sorry if I haven't enlighteneed you in everything I should have. I truly intend on changing that fact, so please ask me anything you want to know."

He seemed to think through his question for a while before he asked hesitantly "Can goddesses have children?" I clasped my mand over my mouth in shock. I hadn't even thought about the chance of getting pregnant

"Yes, they can. Especially if the interaction is with a human."  
>He flashed me a careful smile "So, how would you feel about you and me having kids?" he asked me.<p>

I shrugged "We'll just have to wait and see what happens. I wouldn't mind carrying your children." I gave him a warm smile and he wrapped his arms around me

"I can't wait to see you pregnant with my sons and daughters." He told me, finishing the thought with a toe-curling kiss.

He gently got me under him and entered my body with a slow, but certain shove. I gasped because of the pleasure and wrapped my arms around his waist. He moved in and out of me, savoring every moment and keeping his eyes on mine the whole time.

His mouth was on my neck, sucking and teasing my sensitive spots and making it's way to my breasts. I put my hands on his perfect butt, to pull him even deeper inside me, wishing that he would never leave. He groaned as he started sucking on my breasts, his talented mouth did wonders to my body and soon, I was letting out fairly loud cries with every thrust of his hips. That spurred him on even more and it didn't take long for the both of us come undone together.

As we were laying on the bed, trying to recover our senses, there was a loud thud on the door and it flew wide open to reveal both of Eric's brothers grinning at us.

They shut the door after they walked in and watched fascinatedly, how Eric threw one of the blankets on me to cover my naked body. Where's Havet when you really need her? I didn't need to think about that much longer, because Havet pushed the door open with her nose and entered peacefully behind Eric's brothers.

I gave her an angry look _"Couldn't you have kept them out?" _She cocked her head to the side  
><em>"I could have, but I got here just after they entered. Right now, I'm enjoying the show so I can't throw them out of here." <em> Clearly she wouldn't help, so I turned my eyes to see Alexander and Leif holding their stomachs, laughing about the look on Eric's face.

I must admit, I had to let a small chuckle ecscape my mouth when I saw how he was trying to seem angry and holding back his smile at the same time. To top it off, he was completely naked, so I threw a little of the blanket to cover up his manhood.

"Why are you here?" he asked his brothers, when they had calmed down a bit. Leif started explaining  
>"We were just coming here to invite you guys for a swim, when we heard these strange noises coming out of this room." Alexander cut him off "Of course, we couldn't figure out what was going on here, so we decided to check up on you, to see if your little flower was alright."<p>

I blushed, but Eric didn't lose his confidence "As you can see, She's more that alright. She's terrific, so you can go away now." The brothers shrugged nonchalantly and sat down on the bed "Oh, can't we at least join the fun?"

Eric growled and attacked them and the three of them fell down the bed. I exploited the time their concentration was on each other, to grab my dress and pull it on quickly. Then I calmly walked to the other side of the room and took a big bowl full of water and poured all of it on the fighter's heads.

They stopped their scuffle and quickly stood up. I grabbed a pair of pants and threw them to Eric, who wasn't the least bit disturbed by his nakedness, neither were his brothers, but I figured that he would be less vulnerable when he was covered up a bit.

He pulled them on and gave me a thankful glance before turning to his brothers  
>"I'm not going to swim with you today. Go now." They gave us a smirk and headed out of the door.<p>

We could still hear their laughter when they walked away when Eric wrapped his arm around me  
>"Sorry about that, they are shameless." I gave him a kiss<p>

"It's fine. We'll have to take a swim later tonight though." he winked and flashed a sexy smile at me "I will be looking forward to that."

_**AN: I hope you liked the chapter. Leave me some feedback if there was something you liked or didn't like. Also if you have any questions then I'll try to answer them the best I can. I try to cover most of the info in the story, but I might miss something then let me know. Reminder: I Still don't have a beta, so if you would want to be one for me then send me a PM. Hugs to everyone who read the chapter.**_

_**A**_


	7. Chapter 7

Shining on the sea Chapter 7

**_AN: *Waves shyly* Sorry it took me so long to post. RL was absolutely crazy and I just couldn't find time to write. I also had some big bad health issues and I had to go through a bunch of doctors to even figure out what they are.I hope you can understand that I just didn't have it in me to write at that time and I hope you can forgive me. I know this chapter is a little short, but I figured you might rather have a new chapter now, rather than a new chapter...not now. I'm gonna teach Sookie to cook Viking style this chapter, so I'm even not sure if it's interesting, but I needed a little fill-in before I start making their life more hard.  
>Big thanks to my beta Katherine-rose-rulz, who got this chapter back to me in record speed.<br>_**_I do not own Eric and Sookie, they belong to Charlaine Harris. But I can still play with them, right?_

SPOV

"Hey, Sookie!" we heard from behind us as we were walking home from the lake. We turned around to see Aude running towards us. "I just wanted to remind you to be up and ready early tomorrow, because we need to help with the final preparation for midsummer," she said to me as she reached us, then she turned to Eric. "And you are to be ready for the hunt tomorrow. No staying up late tonight. I want both of you up before sunrise," she rushed off without another word and I giggled as I realized that she felt motherly towards Eric and me. It would be expected, because she must have been the one to take care of Eric while he was alone and now she was slowly transmitting all the duties to me. Well, I knew that Eric had thralls working on his fields and even maintaining the household, but I would guess Aude still helped him out with some things.

"I guess you want to check over your things for tomorrow while I prepare our meal for the evening?" He nodded to that and we walked to the house, holding hands. When we got there, Eric went to the stables to check up on his horse and I headed for the vegetable garden to see what I had to work with.

I honestly had no idea what these humans usually ate, but I would try to work something out. Luckily I could cook, so that was not a problem, but I didn't even know what they grew or gathered. I walked around between the rows of plants that grew there and I deemed them all edible. Then I took the hem of my apron into my hands and gathered some vegetables that would taste good together into the kind of bowl that formed when I held the edge of my apron up.

When I had gathered enough to make a good soup, I went back to the house and put all of the products on the table. Then I walked to the well in the center of Eric's yard to get water for the soup. I grabbed the big wooden bucket that was attached to the well with a rope and threw it to the bottom, where it filled up with water. Then I grabbed the crank on the top of the well with both of my hands and started slowly turning it, to bring the heavy water filled bucket back to me. There was a big round log between two posts on the side of the well, where the rope coiled onto and that brought the bucket up after a little bit of spinning. I grabbed the bucket as soon as I could reach it and untied the rope to carry the water inside. I walked carefully, not to spill any of the water and luckily made it inside with a full bucket. I placed it on the robust wooden table and took the cauldron from the fireplace to fill it with enough water for the soup. Then I took a big bowl and put water in that too to wash the vegetables from all the dirt. I rubbed them with my hands as thoroughly as possible and started looking for a knife to cut them to pieces with. Just as I was looking around the room, Havet barged in with a dead hare between her teeth.

"_Well hello there, Sookie. Forgot about me?" _she thought at me mockingly, as she dropped the hare on the floor with a thump.

"_I was wondering why I didn't have to deal with your annoyances for a while," _I answered back to her without missing a beat. She gave me a bloody grin.

"_Very funny, but do not worry, I know you love me. Look, I brought you a present!" _she pointed her nose at the dead animal on the floor. I frowned at it.

"_It would be great in the soup, but I don't have a knife to cut it, or anything with." _She rolled her eyes at me and in a second, my dagger appeared between her teeth and she dropped it right next to the hare.

"_I bet you didn't remember to call this from home, or take it with you? But at least you have me to take care of you and get stuff like knives for you." _And she was damn right! She always knew how to solve any problem that occurred and she truly had looked out for me my whole life. If I'd wanted to pick on her a bit, I would have pointed out that this was a dagger, not a knife, but this particular dagger would cut into anything, because it was made of skystone. It was a particular stone that grew in the Summerland and it was alive for a while before it matured and turned into stone. Nobody had any idea why it was called skystone, because it didn't come down from the sky, but grew on the ground. When it turned into stone, it had to be forged magically and certain spells had to be read while doing it. After being forged it made very light and strong weapons that were impossible to destroy or manipulate in any way. It also adapted to a specific color, depending on the person it was used by. For me, it usually turned to a variation between sky-blue, white and red with it being red on one edge, then white in the middle and blue on the other edge. The dagger also had a big sapphire at the end of the handle that had certain magical abilities to it. My sword was very similar to the dagger, but obviously it was bigger.

"_We should probably skin the hare outside. It might make a mess indoors," _I told Havet and we got out of the door, the hare between her teeth and me carrying the knife and a bowl to put the meat in. I sat cross legged on the grass and set the bowl in front of me. Then I took the hare from between Havet's teeth and started cleaning it. As soon as I had removed the skin, I abused my powers a bit and turned it into an animal skin fit for use instead of a bloody clump of fur. Then I separated the good and edible meat from the hare's internal organs and bones. I put the food meat in the bowl and set the other things in front of Havet _"Will you eat that?" _I asked her as she sniffed the pile with an almost sour face and then shook her whole body a bit.

"_I might as well. You know, some of us still have to eat," _she thought at me almost sourly. I grinned at her, knowing that she was going to enjoy the food, no matter how much she didn't want to eat it. I'd seen her eat worse things than that and this meal would actually be healthy for her.

I took the bowl and the dagger inside and set them on the table. I quickly cut the meat and the vegetables into medium pieces and watched as the knife cleaned itself (another one of its fine qualities). I looked around, thinking about what I needed to do next and figured it might be a good idea to cook the meat somehow before putting it in the soup since the vegetables would cook faster than the meat, but I wasn't sure how to do it. There didn't seem to be anything in here to cook meat with but the bowl that the meat was in was made of metal and I figured it could be used for frying on the fire, since its bottom was quite flat. Then it came to the obstacle that I had no idea where to get firewood from, so I decided to just call it to me. I knelt in front of the fireplace and focused on it, so the firewood would appear there, instead of in my lap. Since I had been getting more juice from drinking the ambrosia I didn't even have to word out my wishes anymore, I just had to think of them. That would come in handy in a situation that required stealth or surprise, so I needed to work on it as much as possible.

I set the wood on fire by mumbling _fȳr_ and pointing to the wood and then instantly a colorful blaze lit up the fireplace and its warmth filled the dark and cool room instantly, due to it being a magical fire. Then it came to the problem of holding the bowl of meat above the fire, because the cauldron had a hanger, but the bowl obviously wasn't meant for the fireplace. A rope might just burn and the bowl didn't have anything to tie a rope to anyways. I could just hold it over the fire with magic, and it would only take a little time, because these flames were much hotter than any normal flames. I concentrated on the bowl and made it float above the flames and stay there until I heard the familiar noises of meat frying, and then after waiting a while I shook it, so the pieces of meat turned over, and was fried from the other side too. When it was done, I levitated the bowl away from the fire and just let it hang there to cool off.

I then almost ran back to the garden to look for some herbs to season the soup with. I found a few ones that would give the soup some taste, but I had no idea what they were since I hadn't used any of these before, but they still smelled good so I took them and ran back inside. I ripped the leaves into small pieces and threw them inside the soup water, right along with the vegetables and the meat and set the cauldron above the fireplace on its hanger. I cleaned up the table and threw out the water that I washed the vegetables with until the soup started boiling. I watched it closely and when I considered it ready, I lowered the flames a lot, so the room wouldn't get too hot. Then I went to look for Eric and tell him that the soup was ready, Havet came along with me. It was already 7 hours past midday and Eric probably wasn't with the animals anymore but I still checked. The stalls were empty, because all of the animals were still on the fields.

"_Havet, can you sniff him out?"_ I asked Havet, because the long time we would take to actually look for Eric would make the soup go cold. Havet gave me a nod and I followed her away from the house and into the woods.

_**AN: DUN DUN DUNNN *dramatic music plays* Can anyone guess what Eric is doing in the woods? Neither can I, but I have several options to make it bad and dangerous, or to make it a little sexy and fun, so they could play together afterwards *wiggles eyebrows* you know what I mean by 'play'.  
>I promise that this won't take as long as the last chapter. If you've got any questionsremarks leave a review and I'll try to answer. I'm off to write the next chapter. Farväl and have a nice day/night. See ya when I post the next chappy**_

_**Abbey**_


	8. Chapter 8

Shining on the sea Chapter 8

_**AN: Yay another chapter! I hope you like it! Big thanks to Katherine-rose-rulz for betaing this story for me.**_

__  
><em><strong>Eric and Sookie are not mine.<strong>_

SPOV

Havet led me through the woods, and I started to get a bad feeling in my gut. Something was wrong and I knew it, so did Havet, because I felt a sense of worry from her which was rare. We got deeper into the woods, and the trees were taller and older here. I felt another presence near us and it wasn't good at all. I couldn't see the sun through the trees, but I knew the sun would set very late in the evening due to it being summertime so it couldn't be any of the night creatures that were following us. There were plenty of dangerous things lurking around in the daytime too, so we still needed to be cautious. Suddenly, Havet started running and I followed her as fast as I could and we reached a small clearing, where we found Eric. Too bad there was something else there with him.

Havet's POV

Sookie and I were walking through the woods, with me leading the way due to my keen sense of smell and her walking close behind me. I could smell that we weren't alone in the woods –well, except for the Viking and the thing he had been chasing. But when the wind would blow from behind us, it would bring another sweet smell to me that wasn't as sweet as Sookie's, but still sweeter that any human. It was familiar to me, but still strange and I couldn't exactly remember what it was. I could guess, though, that it knew who we were and wouldn't attack. At least not right now.

But when the wind blew from in front of us, I could smell that the blonde Viking wasn't far from us. I could also smell that he was injured and the animal that he had been chasing was winning the fight. There was also another animal there, but it was small, meaningless and also dead, probably simple prey. We needed to hurry though, because the Viking was losing a lot of blood and wouldn't last long, so I started to run knowing that Sookie would catch up with me, having already acquired supernatural speed.

We zipped through the woods and found the Viking wrestling with a huge bear. He was injured, but he still kept fighting. I knew that he wouldn't last long, being a mere human against a huge bear, so I transformed myself into an even bigger bear and approached the fight growling to intimidate the bear. But just as I was approaching the fight, the Viking had the sense to grab his sword from his belt and slice the bear's head off with one strike. The bear fell on its back with a big thump and the Viking struggled to stand up. He wobbled over to Sookie, who looked shocked and angry, but still supported him and helped him lay down on the grass.

"You stupid man!" she mumbled as she started healing his multiple wounds

EPOV

Fuck! What was I thinking running after that bear like this? I could have died and Sookie was obviously very pissed at me. I'd be pissed at me too for being so reckless. The bear had jumped at me just before I got to take out my sword and put its arms around me, making it impossible for me to even move myself. When I finally got to move my hands and attack it with my sword, I was almost crushed.

Sookie ran her hands gently across my wounds and I felt them tingle uncomfortably. When her hands reached my chest area, there were some loud cracks, as my ribs healed themselves and then all of the pain was gone and I only felt lightheaded. I sat up and looked Sookie in the eye.

"Hey," I said to her awkwardly, but she just scoffed and looked away from me. I stood up, but was suddenly hit with a wave of dizziness and I got a blinding headache. I grabbed my head with both of my hands and felt Sookie put her hand on my head and make it better.

"That's from the blood loss. You should drink lots of water and get some sleep," she said neutrally. She grabbed my hand. Havet flew onto her shoulder as a small blue bird and suddenly we were home. The house was warm and smelled like food. Suddenly I felt very hungry and my stomach grumbled loudly enough for Sookie to hear and she tried not to smile. She motioned for me to sit down at the table, filled a bowl with soup from a cauldron that was hanging in the air and set it in front of me. It smelled absolutely delicious.

"Did you make it?" I asked her and she nodded, and even gave me a little smile. Then she exited the house with Havet following right along with her.

SPOV

"_So, how do we fix this cluster fuck? I mean, we can't get the bear out of the woods toget__h__er. Well we could, but it might look a little strange to people. Could we just leave it in the woods?" _Havet thought at me, but I might have already thought of a solution to this.

"_It's simple. We tell Eric's brothers that Eric killed a bear in the woods and you were with him. Then you can lead them to it and they can bring it home. Eric won't have to go with them so he could rest a bit and they wouldn't get lost in the woods and be the prey of that creature lurking around in there." _Havet gave me a nod to show me that she agreed.

"_So you felt that too, huh? I couldn't recognize what it was though, but it was mean. I could smell the hate coming off that thing. I think it's just waiting for the right time to attack, but I'm not sure who it's after. I don't think it wants the Viking, because he was at his most vulnerable state in those woods today and it would have been the perfect chance to attack. I would be useless for the thing, because I'm only a protector, so I'd guess it wants you. So please stay on alert and don't go out without me," _Havet said and I nodded to her. I couldn't be careless anymore.

We found Eric's brothers by the seaside; they had just finished fishing and were getting off the boat with a big sack of fish with them.

"Leif! Alexander!" I shouted at them and waved as they raised their glances to me. They tied the boat to the shore and started walking towards me and Havet.

"What is it, Sookie?" Leif asked me as they got near and I explained to them the situation as Havet and I had planned. They smirked to each other. "How big was the bear?" they asked excitedly and I said that I didn't know. How was I supposed to when I wasn't there? At least that's what they thought.

"Havet could show you the way there," I offered, hoping they'd accept. The both of them nodded.

"We'll get it done. Thanks for telling us. Please make sure Eric still gets up at sunrise tomorrow!" they shouted as I headed back to the house. I found Eric sleeping on the bed and the soup cauldron almost emptied out by him. I figured it would be enough so he could get the soup for breakfast tomorrow morning too, but he'd obviously been tired and hungry tonight.

To be honest, I was drained emotionally and physically, so I just took my ambrosia which made me feel much better but also tired, so I took off my dress and crawled under the covers with Eric, falling asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.I might have heard Havet enter the door at some point, but only rose right before sunrise. I felt groggy and still tired as hell, but still got up and dressed. I made the fire bigger and put the soup cauldron above it to warm it up again. I still felt like crap, like something was draining my energy away from me and it scared me. I waited until the soup warmed up until I woke Eric.

"Hey, wake up," I told him gently as I patted his cheek. He groaned and rolled over clearly wanting to continue sleeping. I made some water appear in a cup and poured it on his face which made him scream and jump out of the bed in all of his naked glory.

"What the fuck, Sookie!" he asked, obviously still confused.

"It was for your own good," I said and chuckled as he shook himself to get rid of the water on his face. Then he went to look for his clothes and I put his soup in a bowl. When Eric was dressed, he came up from behind me and gave me a big hug and a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks for saving my life yesterday. I'm sorry for being so reckless." I turned around in his arms and gave him a big kiss on the mouth.

"I forgive you. I was just scared for you yesterday."

He chuckled.

"Well, it could have ended badly, but it was totally worth seeing Havet as that big white bear. Quite impressive if you'd ask me." I shrugged and gave him a nod. I'd seen Havet turn into much more impressive things that bears. Luckily she wasn't in the room. She didn't need to have her ego boosted in the least bit, or she might just explode. Eric looked at me when he sat down to eat his soup. "You look tired," he assessed.

"I feel tired," I said back to him simply. He looked at me carefully for a while.

"Maybe you should eat?" he said carefully. "I know you don't need food, but you are transforming and I think that might change things. Maybe your body needs extra energy now and you might get that from food." I guess that made sense. When I was growing I needed food and sleep, but I hadn't for a few years. Since I was changing now, I could need food.

"It would certainly not hurt trying," I took a bowl for myself and put the last of the soup inside it. I devoured the soup and when I was done I felt good as ever. "I guess you were right. I needed that," I said as I leaned back and patted my stomach in content.

"How much time have we got?" Eric asked, giving me a hungry look, which I reciprocated.

"Enough time for a quickie if that's what you mean," I said and smiled at him.

"That's exactly what I meant," he said and we both got up and went around the sturdy table to meet each other in the middle.

Eric kissed me fervently and lifted me onto the table which was just the right height, so he didn't have to bow down. He lifted my dress and moved his hands up the insides of my thighs, but not keeping them there for long. Instead he moved his hands up to my lower back and pulled me closer to him. While his hands were busy with kneading my ass, I pulled down his pants, releasing his already hard manhood and wiggled closer to it. He must have understood what I wanted and plunged himself inside me with enthusiasm. He was rough and fast, but not overly so. He knew exactly how to find the road between making me feel loved and just fucking me. I drove my nails into his backside and that spurred him on even more, making me come so hard that it made my head spin and following right after me. Then we were setting ourselves to rights, smiling to each other from time to time as we did that.

"We have things to do," came Aude's voice from outside; well at least she learned how to knock, sort of. We opened the door, to face the blinding sun and the real world.

_**AN: So What do you think? If you have any questions or something to say, leave a review. Hugs to you all  
>Abbey <strong>_


	9. Chapter 9

_**Shining on the sea Chapter 9**_

_******AN: Hope you like the new chappy! I had a hard time translating some of the words here, but I hope you all get the general idea. The sauna traditions that are here, are still valid till this time and I know for a fact that the Estonian vikings used the sauna like that (we weren't a viking country, but vikings lived on one of our islands, where my grandmother was born. Supposedly Thor was buried on one of our islands Osmussaare. I haven't found the gravestone there though)**_

_**Big thanks to my beta Katherine-rose -rulz for reading through this chapter for me! And also big thanks to all that reviewed/alerted/favourited this story. You inspire me!**_

_**I have also started a new story "In my heart", which takes place around my home country, so check it out on my profile if you are interested. I have had a great time writing it, but I won't neglect this story right here. I have big plans for my vikings, just wait for it *fails arms around dramatically* I'm gonna let you read the chapter now.**_

_**Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris.**_

_SPOV_

I was exhausted. We had been working all day lifting wood for the huge fire that was going to be there tomorrow, decorating, feeding the animals, preparing the foods and collecting fruit and berries. The sun had been shining bright all day and was showing no signs of setting even though it was evening.

I had seen Eric around the village several times and each time we greeted each other with a smile or a wave but we never really had the time to speak to each other. We were both too busy with our tasks. But those small waves and smiles gave me the energy to carry on and even made me giddy, so I didn't complain.

Now we were going to the sauna. We had agreed that though usually families went to the sauna together, we wouldn't fit into the small sauna together so we would go in two shifts, first the girls then the guys. Clearly most people would get sweaty after working under the sun all day and I was glad I didn't have that problem. The stench alone was awful and I was glad that people would wash themselves tonight. Havet had gone to catch herself a dinner, so she wasn't with us. She would have to wait outside the door anyways, because I wasn't sure they let dogs or even wolves come into the sauna.

I let Aude and Helga drag me into the small house beside the water that had smoke coming out of its chimney. We had to be fast, because we wanted to spend as much time in the sauna as we could so we didn't linger at the door. We entered the first room, that was very warm already, so we shrugged off our dresses and moved on to the steam room. It was a very small room with benches. One of them on the floor, where there wasn't too hot and the other went up from the first like a staircase, so it was higher and much hotter.

We were tough ladies, so we climbed onto the second floor and put a piece of cloth between our asses and the scolding hot wooden bench. There was a pile of hot stones in a corner, a fireplace in the previous room was heating them, and so they were just opposite each other. Aude sat on the side of the bench that was nearest to the stones and there was a bucket of water and a scoop next to her. She put the scoop full of water and threw the water on the stones with a big sizzle noise coming out and a lot of steam rising into the room, making it very hot. We adjusted to the temperature for a while before Aude asked,

"So Sookie, what do you think of all the other women in our village?" I could sense that she was worried about me fitting in, she thought that it would have been better if I interacted with the other people more and that the midsummer feast would be a great chance for it.

"I think they're nice enough." I answered vaguely. Helga smiled at me understandingly.

"Are they different from the people where you come from?" she asked. Well, if I told her the truth she would be more than surprised, but a little snippet of harmless information wouldn't hurt.

"They are very much so." I answered with a small smile. Helga dropped the subject, but Aude couldn't tame her curiosity.

"Where do you come from? What's it like there?" she asked excitedly and I giggled as I remembered my home.

"It's beautiful. People are always happy there, honestly I have seen only one unhappy person there, but that wasn't a good person either. It's like Valhalla, but without the fighting." I told her about the place I had spent the majority of my childhood because of its safety -the Summerland. I gave her a goofy grin and she nodded

"But what happened that you came to be here then? Do you have any family that might be looking for you?" I had already gotten the story ready in my head,

"I was in a ship wreck. We were traveling overseas and a huge storm broke out. Our sailors were not very skilled, so we drowned. I grabbed hold of a big piece of wood and drifted onto this shore." Aude and Helga both gasped.

"I'm sorry for asking. Do you miss your home?" Aude said in a voice so quiet that it was almost a whisper.

"Do not worry. What is gone is gone. I have found peace here and I wouldn't go back now."

To that Aude gave a dazzling smile and Helga nodded approvingly

"For what it's worth, Eric cares for you very much. I can see the way he looks at you and he's never looked like that at another woman. You make him happy." Helga said in her quiet, but confident way. I gave her a smile in thanks and Aude threw another scoop of water onto the rocks and the room got very hot again. I felt my body heating, but I didn't break a sweat like Aude and Helga did. I pretended not to notice it and we just sat in comfortable silence.

"I think we should go cool off now." Aude said and got up from her seat. Helga and I followed after her and we counted to three before we sprinted out of the sauna and jumped into the cold water. It was very relieving and I dove in deep before I came back to the surface. Aude and Helga were already getting the wet hair away from their face and Aude was grabbing a small box from the shore. She swam back to us and I saw that there was a paste in the box that must have been used for washing. It had to be rubbed all over your body, so we did that and it smelled surprisingly good and I felt very clean afterwards. We walked back to the sauna and sat on the benches in the backroom. Aude excused herself for a second and dragged in a small bath with a bouquet of young birch branches, the leafy parts dipped into the water.

"Sookie, stand here please." Aude indicated for me to stand in front of her and I did. I could hear her taking the bouquet out of the water but I couldn't react fast enough when I heard it whoosh through the air, so it ended up slapping my backside. I whelped from the surprise

"What the hell!" I screamed as Aude and Helga were laughing. Was this some weird fetish? Slapping naked wet people's asses with birch branches in hot rooms? I scrambled to sit back on the bench and eyed the other women suspiciously. I wasn't going to cheat on Eric with them! And why were they still laughing?

"It's alright, Sookie! Calm down!" Helga said, while gasping for air "That's what people do in the sauna. It keeps you healthy." I nodded and got back up and let Aude beat the hell out of me. It wasn't actually painful; it just felt strange to me. When they were done with their weird things Aude instructed me to bow down and dive my head, mostly my hair into the birch water. It was supposed to make your hair softer and shinier. We all did that and got out into the first room to dry off and drink. It was necessary to drink a lot of liquid after going in a sauna, because you sweat a lot and it takes the salt out of your body. I didn't sweat and even I felt a little shaky and tired. We wrapped linen cloths around ourselves and sat on a bench outside drinking root beer and ale. It was refreshing and gave us energy.

We went back inside and had put our dresses on just as the men arrived with Havet. They greeted us loudly and I got a big sweaty hug from Eric. I refrained myself from cringing because of the smell and smiled at him instead. He seemed pleased with himself as one should be with such a body. I almost drooled all over my clean self, but remembered to close my mouth. He was bare chested and had a little sunburn on his shoulders, nose and probably his back. But his muscles were still there and that's what mattered. They went inside though, so I couldn't admire him anymore. As a poor substitute, I walked to the center of the village with Aude, Helga and Havet. We parted in the center and went into our separate homes. Havet and I walked in silence, enjoying the beautiful night and the silence. It actually wasn't silent because of the constant chirping of the crickets, but it was still peaceful. We walked into the yard and instead of just going into the night we sat on the grass and watched the stars that had appeared in the night sky.

"_Pretty, __is__ it?" _I asked Havet and she gave me a nod. Then she seemed to shake off her momentary calmness and gave me a wolfy grin

"_You know, we could go up there if we wanted to." _ She thought at me intensely. Honestly, I loved flying with Havet and so did she, but right now it would be very risky, because anyone could see us.

"_I'm not sure if that's a good idea with so many people around. Maybe some other night when everyone is sleeping, but tonight everyone is excited for the feast and are aw__ake." _She nodded to my valid argument, but wasn't let down, because she knew I couldn't resist her if she put her mind to it.

"_Never mind,__ I'm just getting really sick of this wolf form. Couldn't you have taken a dragon with you or something? I'm sick of l__ooking up at people. The villagers are starting to get friendly __with me__." _She complained and I giggled.

"_You need to make more friends. Maybe you can ride some children around the village tomorrow." _I teased her. Not that she had anything against children, but them riding her like an animal would be the last drop in her already full cup.

"_I cannot make friends with all the people. They need to be afraid of me, so they wouldn't dare try anything against you." _I sighed as she explained that to me for the millionth time.

"_You know I'm perfectly capable to be my own bodyguard." _I thought at her and she only rolled her eyes as always

"_Just the fact that you think that makes you completely __incompetent of__ defending yourself. You're too trusting of people and while__ sometimes it might be a good thing, it's more often a bad thing since you let your guard down too easily. There's something out there that's after you. Several things actually but there's a direct threat right under our noses and we have no idea what it i__s. So I suggest you stop arguing with me about things that I have or don't have to do. I've been protecting you since both of us were born and I plan continuing to do it forever." _She was strict now and I didn't dare to argue with her.

"_But you know I don'__t view you as my bodyguard. You're my best friend in the whole world." _I thought at her gently and she gave me a fond glance.

"_But that's what best friends __do. They stick up for each other, a__lways." _That was her way of telling me that I was her fiend too, so I was thankful, but didn't acknowledge it, because I knew that Havet would just joke her furry ass around it and say that she was kidding. She was awkward like that and that was why I liked her. She was straight forward and not too mushy about anything.

"_B__y the way, Eric can hear me now too." _Havet dropped the bomb on me like it was nothing. Knowing her, it probably wasn't. Or was it?

_**AN: Is it? I have no idea if this qualifies as a cliffhanger, but I'll be cruel and let you wait for the next chapter for a few days *snicker* If you get bored, you can check out "In my heart". I'm sure you'll like the adorkable Eric I've got going on there. Just so you know, the trick of rinsing your hair with the birch water really helps. Makes them much more shinier and softer. The old tradition is to collect the birch branches before summer solstice which is celebrated wildly around here.**_

_** I hope you liked the chapter and make sure to leave a review. Pleeease? I'll even make a point to reply to them from now on :)  
>Abbey <strong>_


	10. Chapter 10

_**Shining on the sea Chapter 10**_

_**Oooh! A new chapter! And it hasn't even been a month since last one :) Big thanks and hugs to all of you who alerted/favorited and reviewed. I have been lacking inspiration lately and reviews give me motivation to push myself to write. I'm just not happy with the chapters and something seems to be constantly bugging me about them. If something is annoying you about this story then leave it to me in a review, maybe it'll help me figure out what I don't like. But if you like it then you can leave a review about that also, because it helps me overcome my insecurity.**_

**_Thans and hugs to my beta Katherine-Rose-Rulz for fixing my mistakes :)_**

**_Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine. All else is mine._**

"Eric can do what?" I said out loud and Havet scoffed

"_No need to be so loud. Someone might hear us." _She thought at me tauntingly and I silenced myself immediately.

"_What do you mean that he can hear you? Can you hear him too?" _I thought more calmly

"_You know, just like we can hear each other. I think he was freaked out at the beginning, when I started thinking at him. You should have seen the look on his face. But to be fair, he is a funny guy and seems to take all the weirdness in stride, which is good seeing as there is so much of it." _she told me and laid down beside me. Maybe it was a good thing. When we could communicate so that no one else could hear us, at least through Havet. Yes, I could definitely see the good side of it

"Come on. Let's go inside." I told Havet as I got up and she followed me into the house. I had to make a dress for tomorrow out of the white linen Aude had given me a few days ago. Women had to put on these dresses after they bathed in the river.

I took out the fabric and cut out the pieces that would be needed. Then I simply sewed them together and the dress was ready. I was lucky enough to have been taught to sew by one of the best at this profession, so I got all of it ready very fast and the dress was quite decent. I folded the dress and put it next to my ambrosia bottle. Then I just stood in the middle of the room trying to figure out what else I needed to do.

I figured Eric would be hungry when he returned from the sauna and so was I right now, so I could cook some food. It was pretty late in the evening, but food takes time to cook. I definitely didn't have it in me to cook, so I just made a big piece of salted meat and some bread appear on a plate that I put on the table. I took a piece of it and ate it, so I wouldn't be starving when Eric came in, but even if my hunger was now fulfilled, I was still exhausted, so I consumed the cupful of ambrosia and fell asleep as soon as I hit the bed fully clothed.

_EPOV_

I was glad that the day was nearing it's end. I was tired and felt absolutely dirty from all the dirt and sweat. We had been busy all day and even though I felt the urge to fuck Sookie on the ground every time I saw her, I opted on just giving her a smile or a wave to acknowledge her. When the sun was setting, Aude came to us and asked about the sauna planning.

As much as I would have enjoyed being in a sauna with a naked Sookie, today we didn't have time to do this tonight, so we would go in two different shifts. I made a promise to myself to get Sookie alone in that sauna as soon as I could. Alexander, Leif and I ate and drank as the girls went to the sauna. Of course we were making up stuff what the women would be doing in that sauna, but we didn't actually go peeking as Alexander suggested. We were all too possessive towards our women to want the other brothers to see them naked.

The conversation stopped as we saw Havet coming our way. My brothers were smart enough to know that Havet wasn't a regular wolf and that Sookie wasn't an ordinary human. They were actually convinced that Sookie was a witch, and to some point she was, so I didn't feel like I was lying to them. Our family wasn't scared of magic or witches. Our mother had had some skills and there was a witch in every decent village.

We actually had a man for the village sorcerer. He was blind and a lover of men, so he wasn't deemed fit for battle but he had considerable powers for a man. It was known that if a man practiced magic, he would turn into a woman once a month and most of the more small minded men of our village stayed away from him. I didn't mind asking him for his advice and found him to be a very decent guy. I had to convince my uncle to even let him stay in the village, which wasn't easy knowing how stubborn he could be. The sorcerer had very good intuition and I was interested to see what happened if Sookie met him. I had a feeling that the man would sense that Sookie was something special and I was really hoping that he wouldn't make a scene. We continued eating silently and Havet gave us an amused look.

"_I know what you guys were talking about. I could keep my mouth shut with Sookie about it, if you give me a decent payment. Maybe some of that meat you're having?" _I heard a woman's voice in my head. I froze and turned to look at Havet. She was looking at me intensely and there was a naughty spark in her eyes. I directed my thoughts at her.

"_Havet?"_

"_No shit, you dumb ass. Now throw me that meat or I'll tell Sookie that you were having a sex talk here." _I took a big piece of meat and threw it down to Havet. She devoured it in less than a minute and laid down on the grass _"Just so you know, Sookie wouldn't have been angry. I was just blackmailing you. How was your day?" _I had to control my facial expressions so I wouldn't show that something weird was going on. Right now, I had the urge to laugh.

"_So nice of you to ask. My day was productive. What about you?" _My back was to Havet, but I could almost feel her rolling her eyes

"_Ah, same old. There's almost nothing for me to do in your little village. I guess I'm just used to not having to worry about other people finding out things about me. Where we come from, I get to be what I want, when I want. Here I just have to be a boring wolf. It's annoying." _She thought at me and I had to hold in my laughter. While she might have been bored here, I was having the most interesting time of my life. I knew I should be freaked out because of all the magic going on here, I was too interested in all of it to even be scared.

"_What do you normally do then?" _I couldn't help but ask Havet. I wanted to know more about Sookie's life before she came here. I would have asked her, but we had been too busy to just sit down and talk these past few days. Real life just got in the way.

"_On days we had training, Fridays were free, then we just spent time with people or wandered around and every night we celebrated." _She thought at me and sent images of beautiful sunny days and starry nights filled with bonfires and feasts.

"_What did you celebrate every night?" _I asked her curiously, while absentmindedly also keeping an eye on my brothers conversation. This hiding things was harder than I would've thought it would be.

"_Life." _Havet simply answered me. Life was certainly worth celebrating.

"_Didn't you get tired of the partying? Every night might get a little boring." _I obviously would need some sleep at some point. Of course having infinite energy could save one from that, but what would you do on a celebration every night. A celebration was a celebration because it didn't take place every night. That's what makes it special.

"_Nobody was forced to join every night. Sometimes we just spent time at our home." _She sent me an image of a home that was a tree. It was like the house was on a tree, but you couldn't tell where the tree ended or where the house began. The whole tree had symbols on it, but they didn't seem carved. It was like the tree had grown like this. It was beautiful. It had branches all around it and they grew very gracefully. It wasn't even the square shape of a normal house, it was round.

"_Are all the homes there like this?" _I asked in amazement.

"_Almost. Ours is bigger, so I could fit in it, in whatever form I want." _She answered and I concentrated on my brothers, who were sending strange glances my way.

"What?" I asked them and took a bite of my food.

"You just seem distracted. Is there something on your mind?" Leif answered.

"Nothing special. I'm just tired from the day." I brushed it off, but Alexander wouldn't budge.

"If the day-job unmans you, you should move your shiny behind to the old -ladies chambers. I hear that needle-job is very relaxing." He joked.

"I happen to know that you like to try on Aude's dresses when you're home alone. I do say that you shouldn't be ashamed of yourself. A man wants what he wants and I could imagine they fit you quite well." I joked right back and we all laughed and continued eating.

When we had devoured all of the food, we got up and headed towards the sauna, Havet following closely behind us.

_**I really hope you liked it. Don't forget to review (if you want to) I'll be doing my best to respond to all of them :) I've been considering taking a few weeks off from all writing if I don't figure out what's bugging me about this fic and maybe do some soul-searching. Maybe I'm just tired, but something is wrong...**_

_**But I'll post the next chapter by Monday and maybe by then I have figured it all out. But till then I'll just give you big hugs and a cup of hot chocolate on your way out :)**_

_**Abbey**_


	11. Chapter 11

_**Shining on the sea Chapter 11**_

_**I am so so sorry that I haven't updated. I had some difficulties with the story. I didn't know where to go with it and I just had a big block in front of the flow of words. I figured everything out and I thought out the storylines for this story and even the sequel (yes, the sequel is still part of the plan). This is more of a filler so I wouldn't have to keep you waiting too long. I hope you enjoy :) And big thanks to my dear beta Katherine for sorting out my typos.**_

_Sookie/Havet POV_

_I was running through the dark woods at a rapid speed. I could smell the fear of the smaller animal __that__ I was chasing. Even they knew __that they had no chance of outrunning me. I was gaining on the wildcat and there were no more than a few trees separating us now. I supported my paws on the rich soil of the forest and made the final leap to land on the back of the spotted lynx. My long fa__ngs found __its__ throat quickly and I bit down on the flesh. The animal couldn't even fight back before it was dead and __its__ warm blood was in my mouth. _

_I let out a howl of victory and started eating. I was almost finished when I heard a small wolf pack approaching; I left the remains for them. I was full and they must have been hungry. I kept running just to feel the wind in my fur. I felt freer than I had felt the whole time I had been here. Here, with none of these humans watching me I could be anything. I could fly or swim or run on land. It was my choice._

_Suddenly the wind changed, bearing the foulest smell I had ever felt. It was sour, cold and dead with a hint of decay. I knew that it was an enemy. I don't know how, but I was as sure of it as I could be._

_I turned to go towards it and felt resentment taking every step towards whatever it was. I had to go. I was here to protect Sookie. I was her familiar and whatever this was, I had to be stronger than it. I was made to be strong. I fought the resentment and continued onward._

"_You're going the wrong way, wolfling. You're following death." I heard a crow screaming to me as I ran past it. It was flying the opposite way and maybe I should have too. But how could I just leave whatever it was running around the woods freely? No, every person in this village would be outside tomorrow night, there was no need for it catching them unawares. Besides, I was no wolfling. I could be everything._

_I kept running even though I could barely step one foot in front of another. But there was no need to run anymore. The thing was coming my way, I could hear it, feel it and smell it. The stench was awful. It had a lingering smell of rotten meat, but it was also sour and evil._

_I could only stand there and wait. I couldn't go back now; I would only lead it to the village and Sookie. I could feel her in my head, sometimes we dreamed the same dreams, and sometimes she saw what I saw. I hoped she wouldn't come after me. I was her protector, not the other way around._

_I could now see the shadow of my enemy behind the trees now. I must not be afraid. I was made to be brave._

_I watched as it appeared before me, a great she-wolf, rotten and dead, but moving. I was bigger than it, but how do you kill something that is already dead? There was a big hole in one of its sides and I could see the maggots in there. It had no eyes, maybe something had picked them out, and maybe they had just rotted away._

_We were circling each other, waiting for the other one to attack. The only way to defeat the thing would be to tear its limbs off. Then it at least couldn't do anything._

_I had just been able to finish the thought when the monster flung itself at me. I ducked my head so it couldn't reach my throat, and got my feet around its paw. I tore and luckily the flesh was soft and rotten so it came away from the beast's body easily. I flung it aside and jumped away from the corpse. It had scratched my back and I could feel the blood seeping into the fur around the scratches. At least I still had all my paws._

_But having three legs didn't bother the carcass at all. Of course it didn't feel pain, or fear. It limped at me again and snapped at my shoulder. I jumped away and went after its other foot. It tried to jump away, but it was too slow and I got the other foot too._

_The corps fell down lifelessly. It seemed as if whatever was in it was gone now. I backed away carefully and started running towards home. I was relieved to get away from the smell and I stopped for a moment to relish the smell of fresh air. Just as I breathed deeply, I felt the same sour smell. Not as rotten, but just as bitter and the corpse of the wolf. I had no choice but to stop and see what was out to get me. I couldn't lead it to the village. I braced myself and before I knew it, a black raven flew towards me. It wanted to pick my eyes out. It as in whatever had control over that bird's body. I was vulnerable on the ground, so without having to think of it, I rose to the sky as a white eagle. I bombarded the puppet bird with hits of my sharp beak and by minutes it was bloodied and falling down._

_I had defeated two of the sour puppets, but I had no idea if I'd be able to survive a third one that easily. The wound that wolf-corpse had left me hadn't healed. It was merely a scratch, but I could feel that the sourness was poisonous and I had no idea what the poison would do. Would it kill me? Or worse? No, I wouldn't think of that right now. It could come back any second now and I had to figure out how to destroy it._

Fire.

_I could hear a voice inside me. Yes, there are very few things that fire wouldn't destroy given time. But how would I get fire here in the woods? I had gone back to the ground and gone to my wolf form. Even if I got hands, I would be helpless in the woods and under the wrath of the sour ghost._

Dragons.

_Dragons were fire made to flesh. But how would a dragon fit in the middle of these trees? I wasn't even in a clearing and these woods didn't have many clearings to go to. The trees were thick and there no place for a dragon here._

_But Just then I saw a thin strip of light rising in the east. Somehow I knew that the sour thing was a creature of darkness. It won't attack when the sun is up. At least not yet._

_I struggled back to my feet, just now starting to feel the pain in my back that was the beast's scratch. I found the last remains of my strength inside me and started running home._

_SPOV_

I woke up with a gasp. Eric was sleeping deeply beside me, but I saw no need to wake him up. There was nothing he could do. I could still feel Havet's pain in my back and I twisted myself to see if maybe I was hurt too. I wasn't. But she was, and probably poisoned too. I could tell that she wasn't too far from the village, so I wasted no time to get to her. I was wearing some dress I had fallen asleep in last night, hence I didn't need to do anything but just grab my dagger. I ran barefoot towards the place where I knew Havet would be.

I ran faster than I ever had. Even faster than I had in my dreams with Havet and in no time I was in the place Havet had fallen. I saw her white body under a tree and walked towards her carefully. She was shaking and the three deep scratches on her back were still bleeding. Usually scratches like these would have healed in less than a minute for her, but this was different. I bowed to look at the wounds more closely. But just as I knelt on the ground I heard someone behind my back. I grabbed the hilt of my dagger as I heard its soft steps getting closer to me.

_**I don't know if it's weird writing almost the whole chapter as a dream? I hope it wasn't bad and I'm sorry for the cliffie (is it even a cliffie?). I'll make sure to update by next weekend, so don't worry about me going missing feedback is welcome. If anyone leaves a review, They can wait an answer on Tuesday. I won't have any time for it tomorrow.**_

_**Until next weekend,**_

_**Abbey**_


	12. Chapter 12

Shining on the sea Chapter 12

_**AN: I'm still a little bit late, but I hope it's ok. Big thanks to my beta Kat for putting up with my typos and hugs to all those who reviewed the last chapter or alerted/favorited this story. Thank you all so much for inspiring me :)**_

SPOV

I was preparing to strike the potential attacker behind me when I heard a familiar and comforting voice "It's only me, Sookie. Calm down. "

I turned around to see my mother's worried face leaning towards me and I threw my arms around her. As soon as I touched her, I felt warm and safe. She was almost compelling in her power and love. But as I heard Havet whimper, I was pulled back into the reality of our situation. So was Freya, who knelt beside me to inspect the damage, done to my friend's body. She moved her hands over the scratches and I watched as they slowly closed and Havet stopped shaking. She opened her eyes and struggled to get into a more comfortable position sitting on her hind legs.

"I see you've met the Countess." She stated with a hint of regret in her voice.

Neither of us said anything, waiting for Freya to explain further. She turned to me. "As you might have guessed, she's after you and she's quite strong. You should be careful." I looked at Havet to see that she had fully recovered from her fight before I started questioning my mother

"Why would she be after me? I'm not important and I have nothing to give to her. I'm harmless." Freya chuckled and took my hand

"Dear one, not only are you the daughter of two very powerful deities, you have been sent to this realm to fulfill an important prophecy. But she doesn't want you for that, I'm not even sure that she knows about the prophecy. She wants you for your strength, at least the main source of your strength." I was confused. As much as I knew, I had no remarkable strength to me; I wasn't even a full goddess yet. As soon as mother saw my confused look, she continued her explanation,

"It doesn't matter that you are not fully immortal yet. You still possess nearly all of the power of one. It's just closed up. Locked into your heart and as you would evolve, the magic would spread through your body and you'd be able to use it. But first you need to know of the Countess's story. Only then you would understand what you're up against."

Havet and I nodded to indicate her to start whatever story she wanted to tell. She looked around to see that we were alone in the woods and started.

"Erszebet Bathory the humans would call her. The Bloody Countess. She was a witch who desired immortality and endless power. Forsaking all rules and customs of the witches, she figured out the source to immortality and beauty. Hearts. She prefers highborn virgin girls, but in need she would accept anything with a beating heart. She was banished by the witches after she started taking their daughters. You see, she discovered that a heart with magic sustained her for far longer than a mere human heart. As she sneaked into good people's homes at night and stole away all daughters, she became so powerful, that good, honest witches would not even stand a chance against her.

She dug deeper into the dark sides of magic and sold a piece of her soul with every rule she broke. As she continued through the years, her soul broke off from her body. Even though her body looked youthful because of all the spells she had cast to make herself more attractive, it was too weak to endure her meddling. But she was in too deep to die. She invaded the body of a mouse that was chewing on her corpse and walked around the world as a rodent, collecting the power to conjure a new body. But just as she was about to succeed, she felt you arrive here.

She was pulled towards your magic and she forsook the body of the mouse and traveled here. Right now she's looking for a vessel. Dead animals, smaller ones that are alive. Soon enough she'll find a human body to shelter her soul. She could do it like she tried to do with Havet, entering into her blood through a deep wound. She could also do it slowly, almost invisibly, feasting on the victim's blood every night while she is asleep, making her weaker and sicker until she has no fight left in her and then do as she likes. But we all know who she ultimately wants. She would either eat your heart or possess your body." Freya looked at me to see my reaction. I did nothing but close my eyes.

For the first time in my life I was truly afraid. I knew that soon enough I would have no way to protect myself. My magic would completely lock itself inside me as I evolved to be a goddess. As much as I had always wanted to be what I was meant to be, I didn't want to die before becoming it. There was no turning back now. I couldn't return to Asgard until I was fully evolved, the Summerland's were out of question too.

"How can I protect myself against her?" I asked the only logical question. Mother smiled at me approvingly, as if this was the question she had been expecting from me.

"Since you will lose access to your magic soon, you have to emphasize your other attributes. You won't lose your speed, strength or agility. Maybe you could practice your sword fighting? The most important thing with her is to cut off the head and pierce the heart. You might burn the body too, for good measure, but that won't stop her from rising again. When the time is right, I'll teach you how to destroy her. But until then keep yourself alive. Don't think that you would be safe in the sunlight. She will catch you anytime you are unaware and unprotected. I expect that she'll find a good body soon enough, something that can stay close to you and not raise any suspicion. Stay alert for anyone acting strange, if it's her she'll sneak up on you and take over. Maybe you could ask the blind sorcerer to put a protective spell on you. There's no point to hide something from him, he isn't human like the others and he'll see right through you. You need someone trustworthy in this village. Someone who isn't Eric" She hugged me and I felt a rush of energy swirling into my body. "I will see you as soon as I can." She whispered into my ear and for a second I felt safe in her arms, until she disappeared, and Havet and I were left alone in the clearing.

I leaned down a little and put my arms around Havet. I hugged her and took in the smell of her fur.

"_Do__ not__ ever do that to me again. I couldn't bear to lose you." _I thought to her desperately. Havet was the dearest thing in the world to me aside from my parents. Of course I liked Eric too, but I had only known him for a week. Havet had been with me for my whole life. She was my second half; I couldn't even imagine living without her.

"_I'll try not to. It was a pretty unpleasant experience for me too."_ She thought back at me and we both got up to head back to the village.

…...

EPOV

I woke up to an empty bed. I heard someone walking around in the room and at first I thought it was Sookie, but it definitely didn't sound like her. She walked so softly that I never even heard her walking around; these though, were the heavy steps of a man. I opened my eyes to see who it was and I saw the back of a tall muscular man. His hair was red as fire and a raven stood on both of his shoulders.

As he turned around, I could see that he had only one eye, it was as red as his hair.

**AN: Any guesses of who is Eric's mysterious visitor? If you know norse mythology it couldn't be too hard to guess ;) Don't hesitate to click the big blue button below and tell me what you think. I don't bite. I'll try to update again by next week. I'll have my birthday this Thursday (or Thor's day as the vikings would call it) so I'll probably finish the chapter before that. You all have a great week_!_**

_**Abbey**_


	13. Chapter 13

Shining on the sea Chapter 13

**AN: Hey my lovely readers! I still kept you waiting for the chapter. I know I suck. But the good news is that while I spent my birthday in a viking village remake near my home, I got a nice wave of inspiration and decided to mess up Eric's and Sookie's lives a bit more. Hugs to all that have reviewed/alerted this story. I find myself having fun replying to you all geniuses. You guys are inspiring!  
><em>Big thanks to my beta Katherine for taking care of my typos. You wouldn't believe what this story would be like without her ;) I hope you like the chapter.<em>  
><strong>

**SPOV**

Havet and I walked into the longhouse to see Eric and my father sitting by the table and talking. They seemed to be in a heated, but not angry discussion. Eric had an unhappy look on his face and even Odin looked a little gloomy. I had had my fair share of bad news for today and I wasn't looking forward to receiving any more.

"Sookie, my fair daughter, it has been long since we last met." Odin rose as he spoke and Hugin and Munin flew to my shoulders. The two ravens had always been fond of me for some unknown reason.

"It has been a long time. " I admitted drily "What brings you here now?" Of course I loved my father, but you couldn't really call him an involved parent. He was too busy with all the troubles of the world to find any time for his daughter. But I remembered staying with him for a while when I was five years old. Back then I idolized him and thought him to be the wisest man in the world. He probably was and he had shared a piece of his knowledge with me. Those few years made him a father to me, not just a man who would show up once or twice in a year and call me his daughter. Mostly I was raised by my mother.

Looking at him now, I could understand why I had loved him so much. But I wasn't a little girl anymore.

Odin looked uncomfortable "I was just here to check up on you. To see if you were all right. There have been some rumors going around in Asgard and I wanted to see if they were true." He lied.

If there were ever any rumors, Odin would know them to be true or not. His thought traveled across all the worlds and he knew all that was happening. I didn't mind him lying to me. I knew that if there was something he shouldn't say to me, it was better to not say it than risk ruining something.

He could read me like a book. I could feel his one red eye looking through me and it didn't make me uncomfortable. I knew that he loved me even if he didn't have time for me. That he had been looking out for me my whole life and I knew that if I truly needed him, he would do anything to help me.

Maybe I needed him right now without even knowing it? I did not get to enjoy the serene year in Midgard as I had thought. Instead, some stupid witch just had to plot eating my heart and moving into my body. It was so unfair.

"Life is unfair, little-one." Odin responded to my thought "I understand that your mother has explained the situation to you already so there's no need for me to repeat it. You will be safe tonight, so make sure to enjoy yourselves. But starting tomorrow, you should stay alert. And by alert I mean that you should keep an eye on everyone acting strange. Keep Havet close and Sookie, please just be careful." With that, he took my hand in his, squeezed it and disappeared. I promised myself that when I would be a goddess, I wouldn't disappear unexpectedly all the time. I would at least say goodbye before I took off.

I felt Eric's arms wrap around me from behind "I'm sorry for being so much trouble." I said to him and he chuckled.

"You're not the one that's causing the trouble. It's not your fault that the witch is after you." I nodded, but didn't agree. "You know, let's not think about anything magical or dangerous today. Odin said to have a good time tonight and that's what I plan to do. You should too." He was right. There was nothing I could accomplish by worrying all the time. I willed myself to forget all about bad things just for today.

Eric turned me around in his arms and kissed me. Just as the kiss got intense, Aude barged in. Couldn't we get a moment of privacy in this village?

**EPOV**

I couldn't believe the things that had happened this morning and especially the things Odin had told me. I knew I wouldn't tell Sookie about it just yet, I would wait until the summer was over at least. If she knew about it too soon, she would only feel bad and I didn't want that. I only wanted to see her smile. That was why I was going to set everything straight before I told her, so she wouldn't try and stop me. This had to be done. I pushed my secret out of my head and concentrated on making this day as good as it could be for both of us. For all I knew, this could be our last day of peace.

Just as we were trying to forget everything about this morning by kissing each other, Aude stormed in. It seemed to be a habit for others to interrupt us when we were doing something enjoyable.

I was irritated when Aude whisked Sookie away, but I knew that it wouldn't be long until we could spend time together by the fire. I changed into leather pants, a linen shirt and a vest.

Our village stayed away from the politics, so we always spent midsummer amongst ourselves. We didn't want to draw unwanted attention to ourselves by attending any council's that were held across the water. That was one of the reasons I liked it here, it was peaceful. Just us on this island, no kings, no politics and no one came raiding here. We sailed out for raiding every summer though.

We had settled here from over the sea. The first generation here was my grandfather's and when I was smaller he had told me about the place where they had come from. He said that the village was similar to this one, but it had been burned to the ground along with everything else they had left behind. He said that they had figured it would be better to find a new home than to start rebuilding the old.

My grandfather died about the same time as my parents though. Many had died during that tragic winter ten years ago. We hadn't gotten enough crops during the summer and the cold and hunger took good people, amongst them half of my family. After that, my uncle Abjörn and aunt Finna had raised me and my brothers. They didn't have children so they expected me to follow Abjörn's footsteps and be the chieftain, before Sookie came along. But now I knew that I couldn't. We would be gone from here when the winter came.

_**AN: What do you think Odin told Eric? And where do you think Eric and Sookie would be going when the winter comes? I tried to give some idea of Eric's and Sookie's geographic location in this chapter. For those who didn't understand they're on one of Estonia's islands where vikings used to live. I just wanted to bring them home to me. I've spent my summers as a child there because my grandparents live on one of those islands, so I have a pretty good idea of what they look like. Don't hesitate to leave me a review/PM about your thoughts or questions. I'll do my best to reply to them all :) Thank you for reading**_

_**Abbey**_


	14. Chapter 14

Shining on the sea Chapter 14

_**AN: Hello! I'm back again (if any of you even remember me after this VERY long break). I hope you do, because I got my writing mojo back :) This summer has been truly hectic for me. And my hectic I do mean hectic. As in I got married, moved houses and had (and am having) a kind of a health disorder. I'm dealing with it and everything is going to be fine soon enough, but I was feeling pretty bad for a while, so I just couldn't bring myself to open a computer, not to mention write anything with it. But I am sorry. I know how hard it is when a writer just stops updating and I hate to be that writer. I'm just hoping that you like the story enough to not be too angry at me.  
>as always, thank you to all who have ever reviewedviewed/subscribed/favourited this story. You remain an inspiration to me. Nd hugs to my dear beta Kat, who fixes my mistakes with remarkable speed and is nice while doing it. Smooches to every one of you and let's get on with the adventure!**_

SPOV

We finally made it to the feast when it was in full blow. Aude had taken her time braiding my hair and even putting flowers in it. I would have been content with just letting it be, but Aude insisted that today is for celebrating and being pretty. I wasn't going to argue.

Eric rushed towards me through the crowd carrying two huge tankards of some unknown drink in his hands. His big smile was contagious and he had me in his arms before I could tell him to be careful with the drinks. Luckily I didn't need to, he managed to pull me into one of his big bear hugs and even lift me off the ground without spilling the drinks. When he put me down, he gave me a kiss on the tip of my nose and pushed one of the tankards into my hands.

"I missed you today." He simply said and gently caressed my cheek with his rough fingers. I put my hand on his chest

"I missed you too. I like being around you." that was the first time I had worded any of my feelings for him. Of course I was a little bit more than fond of him, but I had known the man for less than a week. That wasn't enough time to develop any feelings stronger than that. At least that was what I told myself. I certainly felt a pull towards him all the time. I craved his presence in some strange way and as much as it made me uneasy, I forgot all about that when I was around him. I couldn't help but think that I was very lucky that he happened to be my mate. For all I knew, I could have landed some old smelly drunk who liked to beat up his woman. Instead I had Eric, who was more than amazing. I admitted to myself that I was a bit starry-eyed.

"I like having you around. More than like, actually. I haven't been this happy in a long time. You're an amazing woman." with that, he took my hand and led me to the big table that had been lifted near the fire. It was big enough that the whole village would have a place to sit and there would even be some extra room. It was a very small village after all. There were about six households and none of them were huge. Most had three or four children, parents and a few even had grandparents in their houses. The biggest family had six children, all of them very rowdy boys and their mother Helga was expecting her seventh child. I had spoken to her enough to know that she really hoped that it would be a girl.

We sat down and joined the rest of the people. Most of them were already red faced and laughing more loudly than a sober person would. I couldn't hold it against them. On this night, everyone should celebrate. I took a big gulp from the beer-mug Eric had handed me. Not to my surprise, it actually contained beer. I enjoyed its taste a bit too much. I almost giggled and took another gulp of the beer.

Eric put his arm around my waist and squeezed a little bit. I looked up at him and he wiggled his eyebrows at me "You know I can't wait to get you out of this dress later tonight. You look delicious." He took a quick glance at my breasts before he emptied his tankard and grabbed a piece of meat and bread from the table.

He didn't look half bad himself. Actually, that was a serious underestimation. If I looked delicious, he was fucking mouthwatering.

_And those leather pants couldn't possibly make the deal any worse._

Not. Going. There. We still had to go through the whole feast without sneaking off to fuck each other.

_But was the feast really necessary? His body was a feast on its own. _

My inner woman screamed, but I silenced her and did my best to extinguish the fire between my legs.

No such luck. I was distracted by images of Eric's naked body during the entire feast. I kept my free hand on his leg the whole time and inched it upwards slowly but surely.

By the time my hand had reached its destination, Eric and everyone was done eating and most people were heading to dance. Some more drunk men and women were singing songs and even a few instruments had been taken out.

I leaned into Eric's body and took my hand away from his lower half to wrap it around me. Seeing everyone so happy made me happy too. I was content just sitting here next to Eric and basking in the glow of joy from us and everyone else.

Suddenly a man sat to the table across from us. He was beautiful, almost feminine, but manly enough to appear definitely as a guy. His long hair was very blond, almost white and his skin was pale. He flashed a lovely smile toward us and I noticed his strange green eyes that almost glowed reflecting the light from the fire. He made a deep nod in my direction and greeted us "So I finally get to meet you, Sookie. I've been wanting to speak with you since you arrived. I'm Ingvar. The village's healer as you would call me." His eyes were looking far into the distance and never concentrated on neither of our faces.

"It's nice to meet you, Ingvar." I smiled at him as I continued "Why did you want to speak with me?"

"I have a feeling that you could use my help very soon. You are in dire need of training and I am able to provide that to you. If you accept my tutelage, that is." he said calmly.

"Training in what?" I asked, my lips pulling into a strained smile.

"In what you are of course. Do not think that I would mistake you for a mere human. You might be able to fool the others here, well, not completely, but you will never fool this blind man." he said, almost as if he was holding back a laugh.

"And what, may I ask; could a blind village healer teach me?" I'll admit that I was being mean, but him knowing what and who I was caught me off guard and made me feel insecure. Was I really this bad at hiding my identity? Who else knew? Eric squeezed my arm just a little bit, indicating me to be more cautious, but what was already said couldn't be taken back.

"I understand what you might be feeling." But rest assured, that even a blind man could teach you how to see and right now, you're not using your eyes, or any advantages you might have as what you are to your full potential. And I can help you with that. Would you please give me your hand?"

With that, he fixated his gaze onto me frighteningly accurately and reached his hand across the table for me to grab it. I put my hand into his, and suddenly everything went dark.

"_Now you shall truly see the truth about those surrounding you." _

I heard Ingvar's voice inside my head. I panicked, because the only other that had had a mental connection with me had been Havet, and Ingvar's intruding thoughts were strange and unsettling. I tried to pull my hand from his, but I found out that I couldn't move myself. I felt Ingvar's consciousness join with my own and it was strikingly inhuman. I felt strange smells and sounds invading my mind and the beautiful, yet frightening music that echoed between his thoughts lulled me into a strange peace. I felt that his intentions were nothing but good and I willed my mind to stop struggling and let him in.

_**AN: Short as always, but not to worry. I'm pretty far along with the next chapter. I could post it right away, but I'd like to make it a little bit longer and even write a few chapters ahead to be always prepared. I'll try to write a chapter (or at least 500 words) a day. I have been able to keep it up for a few days now, so let's hope that there won't bi a big pause on the horizon now.  
><strong>__**Feedback is loved and cherished by me as always. Until the next chapter!**_

_**Abbey**_


	15. Chapter 15

Shining on the sea Chapter 15

**_AN: ooh? A new chapter! This can't be... but it is ;) So yeah, I finally got around to posting this one. If you look really closely, you can see that this one is a bit longer than the last one. That's good,right? I always feel so pathetic posting my short chapters and I wanted to make it better, because you all are awesome and you deserve awesomeness!_**

**_Speaking of awesome, let's talk about my sweet reviewers. I mean, right now I have 79 reviews and if i'm lucky, this might reach a 100 reviews by the time I end it *embarrassing happy-dance*. I'm handing out so many virtual hugs to you lovely people right now! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Thank you to all those who subscribe or favorite this story too. You are amazing!1!1! (Notice the overly enthusiastic exclamation marks? Yeah, I'm that happy)_**

**_As always, hugs to Kat, the awesome beta reader and also my weather confidant. And my cat Marianne (Jobu), whose birthday it is today. The fatzo (don't tell her I said that) turned 4 today and she is currently sitting beside me and purring so nicely. (so I celebrate my pet's birthday...I'm not crazy)_**

**_Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris. All else s mine._**

**_Enjoy!_**

_Previously: I felt strange smells and sounds invading my mind and the beautiful, yet frightening music that echoed between his thoughts lulled me into a strange peace. I felt that his intentions were nothing but good and I willed my mind to stop struggling and let him in._

At first glance I only saw darkness. I wondered what Ingvar was trying to do until I heard his slightly amused voice in my head _"Open your eyes, silly"_.

I ignored the insult as I noticed that I had indeed closed my eyes without even knowing it. So I opened them and gasped at what was laid out before me.

I found myself looking upon a starry sky. Some stars that shone bigger and brighter than others and some of them were moving. I sensed that Ingvar's head was turned away from us and he and I were seeing the dancers through his eyes. I figured that the smaller splotches in the background that were not moving were the trees of the forest. I think I also saw the very small dots that must have been the grass and the small critters in it. The bugs flying in the air seemed like small bits of dust. It seemed as if distance affected Ingvar's vision greatly, because the bodies nearer to us shone more brightly, but those in the distance I could barely make out. I felt though our mind link when Ingvar turned his head towards us. It felt as if I was turning too, but I knew that my body was as still as a stone statue.

Then I saw what I figured to be Eric and me though Ingvar's eyes. I was surprised to see how bright I was. If Ingvar wasn't already blind, I would be worried about him getting blinded by looking at me. My light was almost pulsating and it was seemingly reaching towards Eric's much smaller brightness. Then as I felt Ingvar's mind separating from mine, color returned to my vision and I found myself looking at Ingvar's elf-like face once again. Suddenly I remembered my mother's words about the white haired man. Ingvar was fairly white haired, wasn't he? He did not seem as if he had any ill will towards me and even though I had no idea of what he was, I definitely wasn't going to breach that subject here. It didn't seem to relevant and I had my suspicions already. I had plenty of time to ask him.

"That was...interesting." I had trouble regaining my ability to speak "There's more to you than meets the eye. I would be flattered to have you as my teacher." I gave him a genuine smile and he answered with the same.

"I think it's best if I leave you two alone now. I'll be seeing you soon, Sookie." He gave a nod in Eric's direction and walked away to sit nearer to the fire.

"Will you tell me what just happened here?" Eric asked, the corners of his mouth a little upturned. He didn't seem to be expecting an answer from me.

"Do you want to know?" I asked him in return.

"Honestly, I think I don't. Even though I seem to be coping fairly well with all of your magic, even I have a breaking point. Finding out that Ingvar is something else too might as well bring me much nearer to it." He seemed to be joking, but I knew there was some truth in what he said. Eric was only human and getting mixed up with so much higher powers might prove to be overwhelming. Even for him.

"I think all you really need to know then is that it's nothing bad. You have been really good about this, you know." I felt like I needed to tell him that. I don't think there are much humans in the world who could cope so well with so many changes to his comfortable knowing of the world around him.

"I do my best." He shrugged nonchalantly. Then that turned into a smirk "Do you want to dance?"

I glanced at the rest of the village who were seemingly having a lot of fun dancing and sitting by the fire. Before I knew it, Eric stood up and grabbed my hand to drag me into the crowd. I didn't put up a fight and let him.

Suddenly I was standing in the middle of a few people, some I knew and some I had only briefly spoken to, dancing around. Their movements were positively savage. It seemed as if their steps were somewhat coordinated, but at the same time it looked like they were randomly jumping around. Then the musicians started to play a new tune. Everyone seemed to recognize it and they started singing along loudly and drunkenly. Most of the ones who were sitting stood up to join the dance.

I stood in the middle of this mess, not knowing what to do at all. I could dance. But I couldn't say that I enjoyed it when I was sober. I preferred things that would be of use to me. Honestly, I would take sword fighting over dancing any day.

Eric saw my distress and he motioned for me to look at him to know what to do. He crossed his hands in front of his chest, holding them a bit away from his body. Then he waited until the song verse would began and he started moving his feet along with the rhythm. It was really simple: jump one foot forward and the other one backward. Do it slowly two times and fast three times.

I copied his moves and just went along when the other verse started. We had to lock our right hands first and do a full circle, then do the same with the other hand.

The lyrics of the song that went along with the dance were just as bizarre as the movements. As much as I understood it, it went like this: "Oat-Jaan, Oat-Jaan. Jump out to see.". It repeated the same lyrics over and over until the part with the spinning and twirling came along. Then the drunkenness of the villagers who were singing became and obstacle as it slurred up their words enough, that the faster part of the song was impossible to make out.

As I got into the dance and it's simpleness I became to like it. Surprisingly enough, it made me laugh and smile and I even sang along. That all, mixed with the heat of the fire and the euphoria of the people around me made me feel drunk. I don't know how long we danced, I don't know how many songs we danced through. I do know that at some point Eric grew tired and we walked out of the swarm of people who were still dancing. Side by side, we laid down a little further from the huge fire. Both of our bodies were flushed and the night was warm even outside the circle of the firelight.

Eric took my hand in his and for a while we laid there, fully content and not even taking notice of the people around us. The sky darkened above us and the stars started showing up. I gazed at the dots, thinking of how Ingvar sees them in the daytime too. I couldn't decide if he was lucky or not. For one, the stars were beautiful, but there were so much more beautiful things in the world. But it was still better than complete darkness.

I propped myself up on my elbow to look at Eric. I decided that I could never handle the sight of stars that Ingvar possessed, because then I couldn't see Eric like I saw Eric at that moment. His bright blue eyes twinkling at me in the firelight, the small smile his mouth formed and everything else about him.

"Would take a walk with me? I want to show you something." He suddenly said. I nodded wordlessly. We both stood up and he took my hand in his before we walked towards the forest. I had no idea where he was taking me, but the walk didn't take very long since the island was too small for long walks.

I followed Eric through a thick bush and we arrived at a very small and clear pond. Tall thatches surrounded it and it was so still that the surrounding woods and the sky reflected off of it likie from a mirror. The reflection gave the whole world another dimention. It seemed as if the trees and the sky were underwater. I had no idea which one of the worlds was real and which was not. Maybe the trees really were underwater? I already imagined fish swimming in the underwater forest, eating the berries and mushrooms usually reserved for the creatures living on land.

I was brought back into the real world by Eric's hand leaving mine. I watched as he disappeared into the thick thatch forest and shuffled around in there until he pulled out a small boat with oars.

I run around the boat and grab the other end of it to help him lift it into the water.

When the boat is in the water, Eric holds onto it "Hop in." he says and I do it. The boat barely sinks as my feet land on it, so I assume that it can comfortably carry Eric too.

He pushes me further from the shore and jumps in, I feel the boat rocking precariously, but it stops soon enough when Eric settles in across from me.

"It's beautiful here!" I sigh, taking in the pond surrounding us. The underwater trees aren't that clear at the moment because of the ripples sent out by the boat and the oars Eric had started pulling to get us to the center of the water. The pond (or puddle) was so small, that with Eric's strength it took only a few pulls to get to the center. He lifted the oars into the boat and gave me one of his warm smiles. "It is beautiful here. But you make it even more beautiful." I could feel heat rising to my cheeks. I touched them with surprise, because other than from physical exhaustion this sensation was strange to me.

"Are you blushing?" Eric asked teasingly.

"I don't blush." I told him a bit too quickly. Even the thought of it was ridiculous.

"You definitely are." Eric was laughing at me now. He looked way too cocky. I leaned over the edge of the boat and look at myself in the mirror-like water. Horror began to seep into my veins.

Eric had actually made me blush.

_**AN: Awwwww! Like? Hate? Undecided? You can leave some feedback behind to let me know. If you guys are kind, I might reach 80 reviews today. Have I mentioned my love for round numbers (preferably, everything should end in either 0 or a 5 in my life). Now I'm off to give birthday snuggles to my cat and then we'll eat her birthday cake that she doesn't even get to eat. Maybe we just like excuses to have cake? Does it even matter? **_

_**I hope you liked it! Until next chapter,**_

_**Abbey**_


	16. Chapter 16

Shining on the sea chapter 16

_**AN: I'm not even going to try to explain why it took me so long to upload this chapter. There are no excuses. But here it is. As always I would like to thank my lovely beta Kat for ignoring her busy life for a while and betaing this for me. Eric and Sookie belong to Charlaine Harris. Enjoy!**_

I have no idea how long we sat on that little boat. It felt as if the rest of the world didn't exist. We talked or just sat there looking at each other. Eric let the boat freely drift in the water and after a while, we drifted ashore.

"Should we go back?" I ask. There's a reason a fire is lit on midsummer. Staying near the fire is supposed to ward off bad spirits. It seems that this village really doesn't care about the spirits.

Eric hesitated for a moment

"Let's stay for a while. It's good here."

I was glad he wanted to stay. Truly, I didn't like big crowds much. I could handle celebrating for a while, but after some amount of time my head would start to pound and I would tire.

We sat down on the shore where the plants weren't as high. For a time both of us were silent, waiting for the other to say something.

Eric seemed to be having an intense inner struggle. He opened and closed his mouth several times, making the perfect impression of a fish.

"What is it?" I finally asked, getting sick of his tortured silence. He frowned lightly and shook his head.

"It's nothing. Let's just go back." I inched myself away from him. For some reason, his frown irritated me.

"You know, if you have a problem you can just tell me. I have shared enough of myself with you." I snapped at him.

He crossed his arms across his chest and his scowl deepened. It looked strange on him, since he usually always wore a kind smile on his face.

"It's just that...I started thinking about the future. Everything about us just seems so uncertain and that frustrates me. I don't want to get too wrapped up in you because it seems that I can't keep you. I wanted to not think about any of this tonight. I didn't want to ruin the moment, but it looks like that is what I just did." He looked so lost. I felt the urge to protect him, but the realization that there was nothing I could do about this made me crack too.

"I know what you're feeling and it frustrates me too. You know what? Let's just live one day at a time. Some things are just not up to us and that is currently the case. What we can do, is make the most of the time we can spend with each other." It was bittersweet. My heart pulled me towards Eric, but my head pulled me back. If I loved him, what would I do when we were separated? Would I be able to live on? I'd like to think that I could at least manage. I was a strong woman. But what if I couldn't do it? What if I broke down?

Was the same thing going on in Eric's head?

Eric closed the distance I had put between us and put his arm around my shoulders. The warmth of his body gave me comfort and made me feel safe.

"Whatever happens, we'll go through it together." He whispered as his hold on me tightened. I craned my neck up and kissed him with all I had. He kissed me back with just as much, if not more passion. That night we lost ourselves in each other, over and over again.

…-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-…-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-…-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-...-

A week has passed from the midsummer celebration. During that time, I've been enjoying settling into a nice daily routine. I wake up in Eric's arms, then we eat and sadly enough go separate ways. I go to Ingvar's house for our daily lessons and Eric goes out with his brothers and some other men to do whatever men do all day. Hunt and build probably.

Lessons with Ingvar definitely weren't what I expected them to be. They were extremely difficult and the fact that for some reason I am having a hard time using magic lately isn't exactly helping. Even the simplest spells make me wobble on my feet now, so Ingvar has now gone over to teaching me only theoretic magic and we have been concentrating on learning to do things with as little magic as possible. Living without using any spells takes some getting used to, but for some reason, it doesn't bother me at all.

After my lessons, I usually spend some time with the rest of the villagers. I have made friends with most of the women and even though the sensation of having girlfriends is new to me, I love it.

But I have a feeling that this day will be different. Partly because I feel that Eric isn't in bed next to me. I am surprised to hear him shuffling around in the room, because he usually never gets up before me. He would spend the whole day in bed if he could and he is definitely not a morning person.

Our mornings usually consist of Eric's brothers pounding on the door (or barging in mostly) and me trying to wake up Eric while he just keeps mumbling: "Just a few more moments." and hiding himself under the furs. Yes, he's definitely not a morning person and for some reason he is up before me and, from what I hear, quite actively turning the room upside down.

I stretch myself and open one eye to see what Eric is up to. I see him kneeling on the floor and searching through the giant wooden chest he has in the other corner of the room. I can't even indicate that I'm awake until he finds what he is looking for. He pulls a few articles of clothing out of the chest and turns around to see me awake and staring at him

"Have I ever told you how beautiful you look in the mornings?" He asks me while he climbs into the bed, still holding the clothes in his hand.

"Yes you have, several times actually." I say back to him jokingly. I don't think I'll ever be fully comfortable with his constant flattery, but I try to not say anything awkward to him about it. I know he means good and even though it makes me feel uncomfortable, it also makes me feel flattered.

"Well, you are and I'll never stop saying it to you. So, guess what I want to do today?"

"What?" I asked, suddenly feeling curious.

"I told you to guess. But I'll tell you anyways. I'll take you to practice swordplay with me!" He said, and I could read the excitement in his features. "I already spoke to Ingvar, and he said he'll give you a day off, so when we're done we can go swimming in the sea together!"

I had a feeling that today was going to be a perfect day.

_**AN: I hope you liked it. I'm going to try and start rushing this towards the end pretty soon, I think this story might be 25 chapters. I just can't wait to start writing the sequel, because I've got so many things about that rolling around in my head and I can't concentrate on this story. Don't forget to leave some feedback and I'll hopefully post the next chapter soon :)**_

_**Abbey**_


End file.
